Rediscovery
by krh
Summary: Helga moves to another city. She decides to let another person into her heart other than Arnold, and while Helga is gone from Hillwood he develops a close friendship with Lila. What happens when Helga comes back to Hillwood and comes face to face with Arnold. This story contains a lot of romance, and drama.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is my first time actually writing a story, so hopefully you'll enjoy it. I'll try my best to write more and as often as I can. Please be a little easy on the criticism, I hadn't had that much time to actually edit this.**

_**Update: Alright so I decided to go over each chapter and kind of edit it, in a sense. So far I've done this chapter, more to follow after, then I'll post new chapters. Enjoy!  
**_

**I also do not own anything Hey Arnold.**

**Just a fan from the 90's television show.**

* * *

_Helga's transition_

* * *

It was Monday, Helga's first day at a new school, she felt lost since she was the new student starting in the middle of the semester, but what could you do when Big Bob didn't want to wait till she was done her first semester in Hillwood. The moment the opportunity for Big Bob to really take off his business was knocking on the door, and he couldn't pass it off, let alone wait.

Helga had grown a lot since she was 9; puberty was definitely in her favour. She was about 5'7, still with her blonde hair but it reaching a reasonable length brushing a few inches past her shoulders with a natural beach wave to it. Her wardrobe consisted of skinny jeans, converse, a basic white or black tank top, and an endless amount of basic and plaid button ups, occasionally throwing on a random printed scarf if she was wearing a basic button up. Her eyes still blue as ever and her make up being of minimal just simple eyeliner and mascara, occasionally lip balm if her lips felt dry.

As she took a deep breath and entered the school for the first time, she had thought to herself, she should try to be her own person since she hadn't been able to see herself without her obsession over Arnold. She had decided it was a clean slate for her to start over, a new impression of who she was, a new opportunity.

She had gone to her classes, feeling like an outsider at first, but slowly finding her way through the school and meeting people in her classes, whom eventually become her friends over time. They seemed pretty cool from what she could see, and she started to feel like she belonged, instead of some reject that only saw her as a tormented bully.

Helga started to discover more things about herself she didn't seem to know before, music, concerts, and more towards the negative, partying. High school was definitely not as bad as she thought, but people would talk about how high school was either the worst or the best time of their lives. Soon she would understand all the fuss over it, for better ... or worse.

She had made friends with mainly everyone within' her grade, but like everyone else she did have her close knit of friends, some being older than her though they seemed to find her pretty cool despite the fact that she was a year younger. There was one particular guy whom she became quite good friends with to the point where Arnold seemed to be a distant memory.

He was quite the opposite compared to Arnold, more into the body building and more of the jock type, but yet they seemed to click and became quite close, quite quickly. He was tall, short brown hair, tanned skin, bright blue eyes, and an unbelievable build. With a simple name to follow, Gabe.

It's funny how her friendship began with Gabe, finding an interest in Helga and going out of his way to convince a mutual friend of theirs to give him her number to ask her out to the dance. Gabe had dialled her number that night excited to ask her, sure she'd say yes since they'd walk home together every day after school, even though it was with a group of friends, he still felt they clicked.

The phone had rung a few times, and finally Helga had answered with a simple "Hello?"

Gabe had a bit of a shaky voice, but managed to get out, "Hi, is Helga home?"

Helga had replied back with an unimpressed tone to her voice, "speaking." She was pretty confused considering she didn't enjoy talking on the phone and couldn't imagine any one of her friends from school calling her.

Gabe had replied back, "Oh, hi! It's Gabe, how's it going?"

Helga didn't enjoy small talk; she preferred conversations to be straight to the point and not sugar coated. So, she replied back "oh, nothing, what's up? Why are you calling? And how did you get my number?"

Gabe was taken by surprise by Helga's forwardness on the phone, and how her voice seemed a little hostile. His cheeks flushed pink, and replied, "Oh, Sam gave me your number ... sorry I should've said that originally. But anyways I was just wondering if you were planning on going to the dance at all."

Helga nonchalantly replied "Oh no, not my thing, I'm actually just gonna ditch school and head over to the mall or something just to kill time. Dances are the last place I'd want to be caught dead. It's just a lame excuse for people to dress up and act important, definitely not my cup of tea." Deep down though she thought to herself 'of course I'd want to go to the dance, but with whom ... no one, I'd rather just stay away than go and depress myself.'

Gabe felt a little let down by what she had said, he was so excited about asking her to the dance considering he actually didn't normally go to dances, but he found Helga to be the perfect person to go with. He simply replied "oh, that's cool I guess, I was just gonna see if you wanted to go to the dance with me. But since you're not a fan, that's alright I'll just hang out with the guys at the dance that's cool."

Helga felt a little embarrassed considering she hadn't thought he'd want to ask her to go to the dance. She thought to herself 'why am I so dumb?! I shouldn't have opened my mouth! UGH! He's interested in ME! Me! Of all people, and I blow him off before he even asks me! I'm so dumb!' Helga composed herself and shock herself to try to sound normal simply replied, "oh well, that's too bad, I'll see ya tomorrow though. Bye." then simply hung up the phone to avoid any more awkwardness.

Gabe thought to himself after she hung up, 'I guess I should've figured she would say no, but I swear I was sure she'd say yes, I guess we can just be friends, we get along well anyways.'

* * *

The day of the dance came and as Helga had said to Gabe that she'd probably ditch and go to the mall or something, she did just that, ditch. Gabe thought she would've at least shown up for her classes that day, but she didn't come at all, he felt kind of bad since he hadn't had a chance to talk to her since calling her randomly out of the blue last week. He really wanted to apologize and go back to just talking and joking around like they would after school walking home. He thought to himself, 'maybe I'll catch her next week.'

Helga still felt really dumb about shooting Gabe down before he even had a chance to ask her to the dance. She had considered going to school that day just so she wouldn't miss her classes, but she thought to herself 'euh, why bother.' She was taken back to reality when she heard Jon over the phone. They discussed where they'd be meeting and what they'd be doing.

They decided to go to the docks instead and just chill there for the day. Helga simply just began to get ready and headed out the door, when she looked over to see Big Bob hadn't gone to work yet. She simply shrugged her shoulders and walked out the door not caring all that much if he noticed her or not. She said to herself as she walked out the door 'what's the point, I'm ahead of my class anyways, plus Jon and Monica want to hang anyways. It's just the dance.'

As she called them up to see where they're meeting at the mall and what time she should leave, a thought shot through her mind Arnold. She shook her head, and thought 'WHY AM I THINKING ABOUT ARNOLD?!' it caught her off guard and she stopped in her tracks, then shook herself back to reality and tried to forget about the football headed teen.

* * *

The following Monday after the dance, Gabe managed to spot Helga standing with her group of friends, Sam, Jon, Monica, Pauline, Todd, Jeremy, and Quin. He walked over to Helga and asked if she was heading straight home after school and if maybe they wanted to hang out for a bit. Helga had said she would be and agreed to hanging out since she didn't have any plans anyways.

Her group of friends weren't aware that Helga was 'friends' with one of the jocks, especially the fact that she hung out with him. She shrugged it off and said, "He's a pretty cool guy actually, not just a meat head." Her friends didn't seem to care much that she hung out with him or anything, other than Quin, she seemed to find it a little annoying.

After school when Gabe and Helga had started walking home things didn't seem weird at all, they headed down to the local park nearby and just hung out and started swinging on the swings and joking around. Helga would make witty little remarks like "Gabe you really think you could fit in that swing now, it might break" with a sarcastic smile on her face. He knew she was just teasing him with him being on the football team and all and being so muscular.

After swinging on the swings they decided to lay on the grass and just relax for a bit and talk. Helga couldn't believe how much fun she was actually having despite the fact that Gabe was a football player and thought he'd just want to talk about football or something.

While lying in the grass their hands had brushed against each other and Helga couldn't help but feel a blush run across her cheeks. Gabe had stood up and looked over at Helga and couldn't help but notice the slight tint of pink across her cheeks, he smirked and remembered how Helga had mentioned how it's uncomfortable when the dudes in her gym class take their shirts off as if showing off something.

Gabe had then started to take his shirt off, just to get a rise out of Helga of course. Helga propped herself up on her elbows wondering why Gabe had gotten up, only to find Gabe shirtless, her face went stark red, she couldn't help but notice his tanned skin from constantly practicing outside for football, and his unbelievably built body. The only thing Helga managed to get out while covering her eyes "GOD Gabe, put on your shirt! What's wrong with you! It's not like it's a public strip show out here!" Gabe chuckled and grabbed Helga over his shoulder and started walking, all you could hear was Helga yelling and flailing her arms "PUT ME DOWN! GAH!"

Gabe continued to walk and chuckled saying "lets head home c'mon now I have a ton of homework, football practice is making me fall behind on my assignments." He placed Helga down and they continued to walk home until finally reaching Helga's house first. Helga said bye to Gabe and started walking towards her house, while walking Gabe jokingly slapped her on the butt, like he would a teammate. Helga turned and glared at him while he walked off and winked at her. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed and annoyed, but still a little flattered despite it being a little inappropriate.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, so I'm pretty surprised I managed to type this up today, well here you are enjoy.**

**_Update: Alright like I said in Chapter 1, I'm editing the chapters and the new ones will be posted once I'm done editing. Enjoy._  
**

**I do not own anything Hey Arnold.**

* * *

_Beginning of Winter Break_

* * *

It was winter break finally, and Helga was pretty excited to be away from school for a couple of weeks, and to get to send Phoebe her card and gift she picked out for her. She hadn't been able to keep in touch with Phoebe as much as she planned, she didn't think she would make so many good friends so fast, but she did make an effort to call Phoebe every once in a while, just to keep her informed bit and tell her how city life was treating her.

Helga didn't dare to ask Phoebe about Arnold since she left Hillwood, she figured he had forgotten about her, or was relieved she finally left. Little did she know though Arnold did ask Phoebe what happened to her after he hadn't seen her at school for a week, and asked if she was sick or something. Phoebe had informed Arnold about Helga moving to another city and that Helga didn't bother to mention it to anyone else about her moving since she didn't think people would really care. Though it did upset Arnold and make him question himself 'why would Helga think no one would care if she left ... I do.'

Arnold had over thought the whole idea of Helga leaving and all, and ultimately came to the conclusion, maybe it's for the better for Helga, she did always mention about wanting to leave Hillwood, and when the opportunity came she probably couldn't pass it up he guessed. He did hope she would visit though and so he could maybe catch up and see how she was enjoying it in the new city and all, just be near her for a bit.

Gerald had found Arnold to be a little off for the past couple of months, but just kind of shrugged it off since maybe it was just Arnold being a little on the moody side from all the homework and everything he had piled onto his plate. He did notice that Lila and Arnold were becoming quite good friends though, Arnold did say he wasn't into Lila anymore they were just friends and that it was just a childhood crush that he had grown out of already.

Arnold and Lila had hung out quite a bit, doing homework together and being part of the track team together, also being involved with the student council, so naturally they saw each other quite often, so it just fit that they'd hang out a lot. They'd spend a lot of time after school together just discussing what possible colleges they'd attend and what they'd like to become, it was pretty interesting actually too say the least from Arnold's perspective.

Gerald was becoming suspicious of the 2 hanging out and decided to confront Arnold about it that weekend. So that morning Gerald heading to Arnold's house and rang the doorbell, when the door opened Arnold answered with a flock of animals running out the door as usual, and said, "oh hey Gerald. What's up?"

Gerald simply replied "nothing man, just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out."

Arnold had originally planned to call Lila up and see if she wanted to discuss some student council stuff, but he figured since him and Gerald haven't been hanging out as much, he should just hang out with him for the day instead. So Arnold simply replied, "ya sure, sound good, c'mon in."

The 2 headed up to Arnold's room, Gerald sat on the couch, and Arnold sat at his desk and twirled his chair to face Gerald. After getting comfortable Arnold simply said, "So, what did you have in mind?"

Gerald lifted an eyebrow, and said "just wanted to talk and stuff. So what's going on between you and Lila?"

Arnold was caught off guard with Gerald's forward question concerning him and Lila, and replied with "what? Nothing, we're friends. We just have a lot of after school activities we're both involved with, why would you ask something like that?"

Gerald wasn't convinced so he pressed on, "so you're not into her, really." He gave Arnold a you're not convincing anyone kinda look and continued on "you guys are together ALL the time, I barely see you man, and you guys are even hanging out, outside of school, and you're telling me nothing's going on? And that you're not into Lila?"

Arnold didn't know what to say, but simply came up with "like I said Gerald, I'm not into Lila, we just have a lot of after school activities that we're both a part of."

Gerald decided to not to press on anymore and just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Alright man, whatever you say. Do you want to hit up a movie or something, there's not much to do today and Phoebe said she's expecting a call from Helga today so she doesn't want to be bothered."

Arnold hadn't asked about Helga for a while from Phoebe since Phoebe had been so busy lately. Arnold had been caught off guard when Gerald mentioned Helga's name and couldn't help but want to hear her voice. So Arnold decided to mention "Oh! That's cool; maybe we should head over to Phoebe's and keep her company till then. Maybe we can catch up with Helga as well."

Gerald was a little confused and replied, "nah, I think we should let her talk to Helga alone, you know, they are best friends and she hasn't actually talked to her in a while, and knowing Phoebe, she wants to talk to her in private. Plus she is Helga G. Pataki remember, your childhood bully."

Arnold felt a little down after that, but said "you're probably right Gerald, we'll just hit up a movie or something. Plus Helga hasn't acted out like that towards me since 7th grade Gerald, she's actually a pretty ok person." Arnold had just left it at that, though he was curious about how Helga was doing and everything, but Phoebe probably did want to just catch up with Helga alone without interruptions.

So the 2 just headed out and headed straight to the theatre to maybe catch the newest movie that just came out.

Back at Phoebe's she had heard the phone ring and was so excited she ran straight for the phone and squealed, "Hello?! Helga?!"

On the other line was Helga who simply said, "Hey Pheebs, long time no talk. How's it going?" She was definitely missing actually seeing and talking to Phoebe on a regular basis, but what could she do... she had to settle with just calling her or messaging her whenever she could.

Phoebe replied back in a cheery tone, "Oh I'm good Helga how's everything in the new city? Made any friends at school yet?" She was pretty excited to hear all about it, and to let her know how school was going with her as well.

Helga replied back, "Oh you know Pheebs, its alright here, beats old Hillwood that's for sure. Ya I met a few people actually so far, they're pretty cool, not your sort of crowd of people, but they're still pretty cool."

Phoebe was happy to hear she was making friends. "Oh Helga! That's great! I'm so happy you're making friends there! Must be exciting meeting new people and everything! Any interesting people you've met so far?"

Helga had to think about it and Gabe was the first to come to mind and said, "there's this pretty cool guy who lives close by me, we walk home together after school and hang out sometimes-" and before Helga could finish, Phoebe got so excited and cut her off.

"Oh! That's so great Helga! What's his name?! Yell me all about him! What does he look like?! Tell me EVERYTHING!" She was so excited Helga had already met a boy since before she moved Phoebe and Gerald started dated, which Helga was genuinely happy for Phoebe even if it was Gerald.

Helga thought things about Gabe, and only a few things came to mind the first was football so she said, "well he's on the football team."

Phoebe was surprised that Helga would actually associate with people on the football team since she had always been annoyed of the jocks back in Hillwood. So Phoebe simply replied, "oh, well that's interesting ... what else?" She didn't want to annoy Helga by bringing up her not enjoying the company of jocks.

Helga knew Phoebe was a bit caught off guard with the fact that she was hanging out with a football player, since normally she couldn't stand them. So she went on to tell Phoebe about Gabe, "well his name's Gabe, we have a couple of classes together, and we seem to get along pretty well, and surprisingly we have a lot in common."

Phoebe was happy to hear that and said, "So tell me, what does he look like?"

Helga was caught off guard since she didn't really pay attention to how Gabe really looked, so she thought about it and said, "well he's pretty tall 6 foot, he has brown hair, he's pretty tanned since he's outside for football practice a lot, and he actually has the most gorgeous blue eyes!" She couldn't believe she just mentioned Gabe's eyes; she never really thought about how blue his eyes were before, until just now and couldn't help but blush since she accidentally blurted that out.

Phoebe was a little more intrigued by that and had a little smirk on her face and said, "Oh? And do you like like him?"

Helga got a little flustered by that and said "what? No! We're just friends! Criminy Pheebs, I barely know the guy!"

Phoebe giggled a little knowing she had Helga flustered by that questions but decided against annoying her by asking if she was sure, so she decided to change the subject and said, "well I've been on the student council team with Arnold and Lila, and we're trying to plan a dance here, but no one seems to agree on a theme."

Helga's eyes widened, as she heard Arnold's name. She hasn't really thought about Arnold since hanging out with Gabe more, but felt sad just hearing Arnold's name. That's when Helga decided to just simply say "oh ... t-that's great Pheebes anyways Big Bob is calling me to come down for something, I'll try to call you next week k Pheebes."

Phoebe was sad that her and Helga couldn't talk longer, but understood and said "alright Helga, I'll talk to you next week hopefully take care."

Helga replied back "all right bye Pheebes." and hung up the phone. She simply sat down, feeling down, then picked up the phone and dialled Gabe's number.

Gabe had been just in his room reading a book when the phone rang. He answered the phone and said "Hello?"

Helga replied back "hey, what are you up to?"

He was pretty happy to hear Helga calling him out of the blue and said "nothing, you wanna hang out?" since he wasn't really doing anything anyways.

Helga was relieved she wasn't the one asking to hang out and said "sure, meet you in ten?"

Gabe replied back "alright, see you in ten" then hung up the phone and quickly got dressed and headed out the door to Helga's house.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Update: Alright guys, here's the edited version of this chapter. Enjoy.**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Hey Arnold.**

* * *

_Moving Forward_

* * *

As Helga nervously waited for Gabe, she started to think to herself over her conversation with Phoebe, she couldn't help but think to herself, 'do I actually like like Gabe? He's definitely hot, funny, down to earth, nice ... but then again he is a jock who plays football, nah who am I kidding, I can't be into some lame jock.' Mid thought Helga heard the doorbell ring, and to her amazement she heard Miriam's drunken slur.

"Helga hunny ... you're little friend is here."

Helga wanted to hurry down before the chaos inside her house would erupt. Gabe looked up the stairs to see Helga quickly make her way towards him, then grabbed his wrist and said "let's go bucko."

Gabe was a little confused at the statement, but simply forgot all about the moment they were out of the house and half way down the street. So he decided to ask "what did you have in mind, you know, seems like you have something in mind already."

Helga stopped just then realizing she hadn't let go of Gabe's wrist. A flush of pink swept across her face and she quickly let go. "Sorry about that ... it's just ... things in my house aren't exactly normal..."

Gabe smiled and didn't bother to ask Helga about it since she seemed a little embarrassed about the whole situation. So he just chuckled a little and went on "so did you have something in mind?" with a smirk still across his face.

Helga rubbed her arm and nervously and replied "not really ... I ... uh ... just wanted to get out of my house as fast as possible."

Gabe then just smiled at her and an idea came across his mind "let's go ice skating, clear our minds."

Helga thought about it and agreed, plus it was a good idea to just let her mind clear for a bit.

While walking to the bus stop since the skating rink was at the downtown park, Gabe couldn't help but grab Helga's hand while they walked. Helga was taken by surprise, but didn't bother pulling her hand away, plus it felt nice holding his hand. He smiled since Helga didn't pull her hand away, and she seemed to enjoy walking in silence with him.

The bus had rolled up to the curb and the 2 got on and paid the fair. Taking a seat near the back of the bus the two sat not speaking a word, till finally Gabe decided to break the silence, "so, how are you liking the new big city compared to..." Gabe hadn't realized he didn't know where Helga had moved from and continued on "actually come to think about it, I don't even know where you moved from..."

Helga laughed a bit and gave him a little smirk "it's all good, I moved from the east coast from Hillwood. As for the new city and all, I can't complain, definitely beats Hillwood, anything would actually."

Gabe was a little surprised that Helga seemed to not like Hillwood at all from what he could tell, he was curious why and decided to ask her why, what bothered her so much about the place.

Helga went on to explain what was so bad about the place, "well you know the people were kinda a drag, except Phoebe of course, that girl is destined for greatness ... too many geeks back there too, plus Arnold that guy was definitely not the brightest crayon in the crayon box, if you know what I mean."

Helga's eyes widened and looked straight out the window with her cheeks flushed pink, hoping Gabe hadn't noticed before she turned her head away. She couldn't help but think to herself 'why would you mention ARNOLD of all people! ARNOLD! You're so stupid Helga, you should've just said ya too many geeks back there, couldn't stand the place and left it at that. Stupid! Stupid! STUPID!'

Gabe was a little intrigued seeing Helga was deep in thought and smiled, "so I take it things went sour with this Arnold?"

Helga snapped out of it and looked at Gabe, "no well, we just grew up together that's all, he just got on my nerves a lot with his football head."

Gabe smiled at her and chuckled a little saying the oh too familiar phrase, "whatever you say Helga."

Her heart dropped, she really did miss the football head, but there was nothing she could do now, so she smiled at Gabe weakly and all of the sudden they realized they were at their stop. They hopped off the bus and headed across the street towards the park.

It was actually not that busy for the first week of winter break, they headed over to the skate rentals, and grabbed a bench to put on their skates. Helga was having a few issues trying to re-lace them and started mumbling to herself "...stupid good for nothing laces ... damn things won't even tighten..."

Gabe looked over ready to go head onto the rink, and noticed Helga having some issues trying to get her skates on, and smiled. "Here, let me help." as he grabbed her right foot and placed it on his lap and started doing up her skates. He looked up before tying them and asked, "Is that too tight?"

She looked up at him with her eyes wide open a little confused replying back "u-uh ... no ... that's f-fine." She couldn't help but think 'why is he so damn nice?! I'm nothing but moody and he's still willing to be nice to me.'

Once Gabe finished tying Helga's skates up he couldn't help but think to himself 'wow, she really doesn't know how beautiful she is.'

They got up and headed towards the rink and started skating, Helga couldn't help but think 'I think I could really get used to this place ... to him...'


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys, so decided to add Chapter 4 in already. I'm surprised at how I've just been writing so much. I hope you guys are enjoying this so far**.

_**Update: Here's the edited version guys. Enjoy.**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Hey Arnold.**

* * *

_I Miss You Helga..._

* * *

After getting home after hanging with Gerald, Arnold laid down on his bed, thinking about what Gerald had been saying about him potentially like liking Lila. Midway through his thoughts he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was Lila.

Lila had decided to text Arnold and see if he was having a good break so far from school. He was pretty surprised to see Lila was texting him, he smiled and replied back "Ya just got home from hanging out with Gerald. How's your break so far?"

Lila replied back with "oh it's ever so wonderful. I came up with some ideas about that dance we've been trying to plan for student council. I was wondering if maybe we should get together tomorrow and go over it."

Arnold thought about it, he did intend on hanging out that day with her, so he simply agreed to get together tomorrow and just hang out at the boarding house.

Arnold's phone vibrated again, and he read over the text "oh that's ever so great Arnold! I'll see you tomorrow bright and early xox." His mind shifted to the 'xox' at the end of the text. He didn't understand why Lila had decided to add that to the end of the text. He was a little confused but didn't want to over think it, so just left it at that. He had just laid there until he fell asleep, looking forward to seeing Lila in the morning.

The sun had started beaming into Arnold room, and he woke up and rubbed his eyes, then brought himself up to his feet taking a look at the clock. He headed towards his closet to grab some clothes and to go jump in the shower before Lila got there.

After Arnold had finished getting ready he headed downstairs towards the kitchen. His grandma was making stacks of pancakes, and his grandpa sitting at the table with a coffee and newspaper.

"Hey Shortman, take a seat!" As Arnold grabbed a seat and sat down next to his grandpa Phil, as his grandpa continued on to say, "Got any exciting plans for today Shortman?"

"Just having a friend over today Grandpa, that's about it. We're going to discuss that school dance that we've been trying to plan for when we're back at school after the holidays."

His grandpa simply said, "oh that sounds nice Shortman-" then suddenly the doorbell rang. Phil simply looked in the direction of where the front door is, "well who could that be so early?" and then got up to answer the door, before he could make it to the door Arnold had gotten up as well.

"Don't worry about it Grandpa, I'll get it, it's probably Lila."

Phil had sat back down and went back to looking over the newspaper. When Arnold reached the door and opened it, there was Lila, with a cheery little smile on her face and her signature braids, "Good morning Arnold! It's ever so nice to see you this morning!"

Arnold had invited Lila in and asked if she had breakfast, and she had informed him that she had breakfast before heading over to his house. So Arnold led her up to his bedroom, and Lila took a seat on his couch, and he took a seat on his desk chair, then turned to face her, "So what did you want to discuss about the dance?"

Lila smiled at him, "Well I've been thinking about the dance quite a bit and thought we might as well do a winter wonderland theme! It would be ever so sweet with all the snowflakes and sparkles Arnold!"

Arnold smiled back at Lila and said, "that sounds great Lila, Phoebe and everyone would be excited about hearing that!"

They went on to discuss possible decorations, music, and examples for a background drop for photos.

After they had finished discussing the dance and drawing up some diagrams, Arnold had thought, "Hey Lila, you wanna go grab something to eat?"

Lila smiled at him and replied in a singsong kind of voice "Oh! That would be ever so wonderful Arnold. Let me just put my stuff away and we can find somewhere to eat!"

Arnold was happy she'd agree to grab a bite to eat; he started to think to himself 'maybe I do kind of like like Lila still, she's really sweet, and funny, maybe there is something there.'

Lila looked over at Arnold with her bag over her should "so are we ready to go Arnold? I'm ever so excited about getting some lunch with you!"

Arnold got up and put his jacket on, and the 2 headed out the door to the front and then down the steps on the stoop. He hadn't really thought about where to eat then suggested "you want to just grab a pizza maybe, then maybe get some hot chocolate?"

Lila smiled and agreed, and replied back in her singsong voice again "that sounds ever so wonderful Arnold!"

While heading over to the pizza place, Arnold looked over at Lila and said "oh Lila, you look kind of cold, did you want my scarf?"

Lila looked over at him and smiled and with a cheery voice said, "Oh that's ever so sweet of you Arnold! Thank you ever so much!"

They had arrived at the pizza place and Arnold suggested, "So did you just want to grab a large cheese pizza then Lila?"

Lila agreed since she didn't eat meat and was happy Arnold remembered. So se took a seat close to the window and waited for Arnold to arrive with the pizza in hand.

Arnold placed the pizza down in the middle of the table, and grabbed some yahoos for them to drink. He reached over and grabbed a slice, same with Lila, and they began munching on the pizza, till finally Arnold decided to strike up a conversation.

"So Lila, what plans do you have for the holidays?"

Lila looked up at him and smiled "oh nothing too special Arnold, just spending time with my dad, it should be ever so wonderful, since it is the holidays and all! What about you Arnold? Anything exciting planned?"

Arnold replied back with, "just spending time at home, you know with grandma and grandpa and all the boarders, just a regular Christmas as usual." and smiled at Lila as she took another bite of her pizza.

After finishing eating Lila looked at Arnold and said "well I think I should get going now Arnold, it's starting to get late and I don't want to get home too late. It was ever so nice seeing you though Arnold." As she got up, Arnold had gotten up as well and then suggested he'd walk Lila home.

"That would be ever so kind of you to do so Arnold."

As they walked to Lila's house they had some friendly conversation with one another, till they finally reached Lila's house. Lila turned to Arnold as she was about to head up the steps to the door, but before that she said to Arnold.

"It was ever so nice of you to walk me home Arnold, I hope you and your family have a great Christmas. I'll see you at school Arnold!"

Arnold smiled at Lila and said "I had a great time today too Lila, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas as well. See you at school." Before he knew it Lila kissed him on the cheek and head up to the door and waved before entering her house.

Arnold stood there a surprised that Lila had just kissed him on the cheek. He placed his hand on his cheek and smiled as a slight blush swept across his face, 'maybe Gerald was right, maybe I do like like Lila.' He removed his hand from his cheek and smiled as he walked back to the boarding house.

While he walked home, he came across the purple house, the old Pataki house. His face fell a bit while he looked up at it and thought 'I hope you're happier now Helga, I really do miss you...' as he walked away from the purple house he whispered out loud to himself "... Merry Christmas Helga..." and continued walking home in the empty street of Hillwood.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, so I have been making the chapters a little shorter, but I promise I'll try my best to make them longer, I kinda just rushed through them and put them up, and I am slowly learning, I should just keep writing, until I feel the chapter is long enough. So I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, like I said this is my first story, so feel free to comment if you'd like! Thanks again for to all the readers.**

_**Update: Ok, so here is the updated version where I somewhat edited it. Enjoy.  
**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Hey Arnold.**

* * *

_Distractions_

* * *

The holidays had passed and Helga woke up that morning to the sound of her alarm buzzing on her nightstand. She groaned and rubbed her eyes and set her feet on the ground still kind of asleep. She got herself up and grabbed some clothes and headed down the hall towards the shower to get ready for school.

While in the shower Helga started thinking about her winter vacation and how most of it was spent with Gabe. She really did enjoy his company. While thinking about everything they did and talked about over the break she thought to herself 'oh god ... what happens when I see him in the hallways, or during lunch ... will he pretend nothing happened over the break, or will he act all weird...' Helga didn't think about what would happen when school was back in, but took a deep breath and assured herself everything would be just fine.

After showering and getting ready for school Helga headed down the stairs to rummage through the fridge to find something decent to eat for breakfast. There wasn't much so she opted for a granola bar and a glass of juice. After drinking her juice to her confusion the doorbell rang. Miriam still drunk from the night before lifted her hand and said "Helga hunny ... do you mind if you get that..."

Helga stood up and headed towards the door while mumbling to herself "Criminy ... who'd be coming here this early in the morning..." and to Helga's amazement, it was Gabe with a giant grin on his face.

"Morning Pataki, you wanna walk to school together?"

Helga still holding her granola bar, looking wide eyed straight at Gabe, then back at Miriam passed out on the couch she managed to get out "Ya ... uhhh sure ... one sec..." Then quickly closed the door before Gabe was able to say something. She quickly started putting her boots on and grabbing her jacket and her backpack all while cursing under her breath "Criminy, how's a girl to get ready in 2 seconds..."

She managed to get her stuff together quickly then opened the door to see Gabe still standing there "Gosh Pataki, not much manners this morning huh."

Helga turned and glared at him, and said "Criminy, I'm not the one ringing someone's doorbell unannounced at 8 in the morning!" Her voice was definitely on the defence.

Gabe ignored Helga's moody tone and kept walking and simply replied, "well figured you'd want to have a wakeup call anyways and an escort to school this fine morning." While shooting Helga a smile, her cheeks flushing pink.

While reaching the school grounds Helga didn't know what to do considering her classes didn't start until 9am and it was only 8:30. So she looked over at Gabe and said, "you really come to school THIS EARLY?!"

Gabe simply smiled and said "well no, but I figured why not hang out for a bit before classes start, if that's fine by you Pataki?"

Helga a little confused replied "I guess sure ... but what's one to do at 8:30 in the morning at school."

Gabe gave Helga another smile and said "I'm not sure actually, I just enjoy your company that's all."

Helga a little embarrassed at this point rubbed the side of her arm and said "well I guess we can just sit around and talk till class starts."

Gabe agreed and they walked into the school, heading straight for Helga's locker, which was on the third floor. When they arrived there, they decided to just sit against the lockers since that hallway didn't get too much foot traffic to begin with, and just started talking.

The two hadn't talked all that much about anything, other than how classes seemed to be going before break and everything. While a silence drew between the two Gabe couldn't help but put his arm around Helga, it made her blush but she didn't mind and let him keep his arm there.

The 2 teens just sat there in silence just enjoying the moment, till finally they heard the bell ring. So the 2 lifted themselves up from the ground and Gabe smiled at Helga, "so do you mind if I walk you to your class Pataki?"

Helga shot him a side smirk and simply replied, "I need an escort to class now too."

Gabe smiled and chuckled a bit "well I guess so, I am on the football team you know, it's only suitable, wouldn't you think."

The two laughed and headed towards Helga's first class, which was on the second floor. As they reached the class Gabe shot Helga a smile and said "well see ya after school Pataki." then walked off down the hall towards his first period class. Helga smiled and thought 'he really is the sweetest...' and with that she headed into her class to begin her second semester at her new school.

* * *

Back in Hillwood it was the first day back at school for Arnold and everyone. He rubbed his eyes and brought himself up to his feet grabbing his clothes and headed down the stairs towards the bathroom. While showering and getting ready Arnold couldn't help but think about Helga, and what she had been up to all break. He just wished he could just call her and see how things were going, but the only person who had contact with her was Phoebe.

After Arnold had finished getting ready, he headed downstairs to the kitchen where his grandparents were serving up breakfast, and Grandpa Phil motioned to Arnold "morning Shortman, take a seat, your grandma is serving up some pancakes!"

Arnold took a seat, and ate in silence while the boarders sat and argued with one another over how many pancakes each of them had gotten. Phil looked over at Arnold noticing he didn't seem too interested in the conversation going over at the table and said, "What's bugging you Shortman?"

Arnold looked over at this Grandpa and said "oh, nothing, Grandpa just didn't think the holiday would go by so fast, that's all..."

Phil didn't bother to press Arnold about what was bothering him so he simply said, "alright Shortman, but you know it's not healthy to be depressed like this all the time."

Arnold nodded and got up the table to take his dishes to the sink, then looked over at his grandparents "alright, well I'm gonna head to school now, I'll see you guys later." He then walked towards to the door, and headed down the steps of the stoop and began to walk towards the bus stop to meet Gerald.

When he got to the stop there was Gerald as usual greeting Arnold like he always did in the morning "morning man, how was the break?"

Arnold shrugged his shoulders looking down at his shoes and said "it was alright, didn't do much ... what about yours?"

Gerald shrugged his shoulders as well and simply replied "it was alright too, same old you know" Gerald noticing Arnold seeming a little down continued on to say "you alright man, you seem kinda down..."

Arnold looked up at Gerald and said, "oh it's nothing, just a lot on my mind and stuff you know."

Gerald raised an eyebrow and simply said "whatever you say man." The bus pulled up to the curb and the two headed in placing their change into the dispenser.

The 2 took a seat near the back of the bus and Gerald couldn't help but want to get Arnold out of his funk, so he decided to ask again "so man, what's bugging you? You seem really down man."

Arnold looked at Gerald and said, "You wouldn't understand Gerald." and tried leaving it at that. But Gerald looked at Arnold unimpressed.

"Try me man." He said with his arms crossed and raised one eyebrow.

Arnold sighed and said "fine, but you have to PROMISE you won't judge me."

Gerald didn't see the point in making the promise, but agreed to do so.

So Arnold took a deep breath and began, "well lately ... I've been thinking a lot ... well about..." Arnold rubbed the back of his neck and continued on "well ... I've been thinking a lot about ... Helga..."

Gerald then lifted his eyebrow some more, remembering promising Arnold he wouldn't judge him and decided to bite his tongue and said, "ok ... go on..."

Arnold continued on "well I don't know, I've been thinking about her a lot lately ... but who am I kidding ... she's across the country ... plus I've been hanging out with Lila a lot, and well ... maybe I should give her a shot ... since you know ... Helga's not here and all anyways..."

Gerald had a bewildered look on his face, and mainly got out of that Arnold and Lila. "So you're into Lila you're saying?"

Arnold a little annoyed with Gerald "I didn't say I'm into Lila Gerald! I'm just SAYING I may have some little feelings towards Lila."

Gerald felt a little satisfied with Arnold's response and got up to get off at their stop. The 2 got off the bus and crossed the street towards the high school and headed towards their lockers.

To Arnold's surprise Lila was waiting by his locker with a sweet smile on her face "good morning Arnold, it's ever so nice to see you this morning."

Arnold smiled back at Lila and greeted her good morning as well.

While Arnold switched some of his books from his locker to his backpack Lila asked "would you be ever so kind to escort me to my first period class Arnold?"

Arnold smiled and agreed, and started walking with Lila as she talked on about her holidays and dance plans. He thought to himself 'maybe this is good ... maybe this will help me forget about Helga...'


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, sorry I have been meaning to post Chapter 6 but I _FINALLY _finished it, since I was cut short with time, since I had an exam, labs, wine tasting, and then tonight a fashion show. So tonight I decided to stay up late after getting home from the fashion show and write the chapter for you guys, and sacrifice my sleep for work tomorrow. Don't feel bad though, I really do enjoy writing this A LOT, so I really did want to finish this chapter since it had been on my mind for the past couple of days. So please please please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Hey Arnold.**

****_Bad Timing_

With the months passing in school for Helga, she hadn't made much time to hang out or walk home with Gabe, it did bother Helga, but she did feel her social life with her current core group of friends were more important, it helped ease the guiltiness. With that though, it led girls feeing over Gabe, left and right. It did annoy Helga seeing him flirting with them, but it wasn't like the 2 were dating, plus she didn't want a whole similar jealous Arnold incident to happen to her like it did when she'd see Arnold and Lila together.

Rumors had swirled whether the 2 were dating, since that day after the break people had spotted the 2 sitting with Gabe's arm around Helga in the hallways. They obviously denied and insisted on just being good friends, though neither of them were dating anyone which didn't help ease the rumors.

It wasn't until after spring break when Helga came back from the break and had found Gabe walking down the hallway well after classes were over holding a girl's hand. It nearly broke her heart seeing it. But then again Helga did miss the opportunity to be with Gabe when she thought about it.

The moment Gabe had spotted Helga, he quickly released his hand from the girl's hand, and walked quickly ahead of her towards Helga, embracing her in a tight hug. The girl had caught up to Gabe, and looked right at Helga looking her up and dwn in complete disapproval, while grasping onto Gabe's arm. Gabe completely obviously to the girl latched onto his arm looked at Helga and smiled and asked "been awhile, haven't seen you around the halls or after school in awhile."

Helga rolling her eyes at the girl disregarding her simply smiled at Gabe and replied with a witty remark, "well DOI! It was spring break."

Gabe smiled at her knowing she'd say something witty back at him. Then all of a sudden he felt a slight tug on his arm and looked over. It was Sandy standing there unimpressed with Gabe at that specific moment. His cheeks flushed a light shade of pink and looked at Helga, "oh ya, this is my girlfriend Sandy, Sandy this is my good friend Helga."

She simply looked at Helga and then looked at Gabe and said "can we get going now?"

Gabe was unimpressed with her rudeness towards Helga and said "well you can get going, I'll meet you in the front of the school, I'm trying to catch up with a friend." she turned away completely stunned.

"FINE, waste your time." then stormed off.

Helga feeling awkward at that moment simply looked at Gabe "well I gotta get going anyways, you should catch up to her, she seems pretty steamed."

Gabe feeling upset looked at Helga and agreed, and said his bye and that he'll see her around.

While he walked away Helga said to him "I'll call you, we'll catch up then" then continued down the hall to meet with Jon and Monica.

When Helga made it to the west side of the school she found Jon and Monica there, and to her surprise Quin as well. Quin had a weird smirk on her face as if she had done something satisfying and deceiving. Helga brushed it off as nothing and asked "so what's the plan?"

Back in Hillwood, Arnold was feeling his feelings towards Lila growing more and more. He had thought over spring break that maybe there was definitely something there between the 2, and that he should ask Lila out. So when Monday rolled around the corner he had a plan on asking Lila out, and where they'd go.

He had planned on asking her to get some hot chocolate and maybe go see a movie. When he had finally found her in the hallway at her locker, he had the biggest grin on his face, before he knew it some guy walking towards Lila and placing his arm around her waist then kissing her, his face completely fell.

Lila noticed Arnold and said down the hall "oh Arnold! It's ever so nice to see you!"

Arnold looked at Lila and simply replied in a monotone voice "hey Lila, it's good to see you too. How's it going?"

She smiled at Arnold oblivious to his sense of attitude and replied "I'm ever so wonderful Arnold, and yourself?"

He simply replied back again with no change in emotion "I'm alright Lila."

That's when she finally took notice in Arnold's attitude and had asked Matt to wait in the car, and that she'll be right there.

"What seems to be the matter Arnold?"

Arnold still looking down not daring to make eye contact with Lila, simply replied "oh nothing, just didn't know you had plans with someone today."

Lila looking at Arnold simply replied "oh I don't Arnold, why would you think that?"

Arnold seemed a little confused and slightly frustrated with Lila at that moment, looked Lila straight in the eye and said "well it kind of seems like you do, considering you were kissing that guy."

Lila looked at Arnold with a blank face and slightly confused with Arnold's remark. "Well he's my boyfriend Arnold ..."

Arnold still looking at Lila slightly frustrated simply replied "well you never said you have a boyfriend Lila."

Lila was a little caught off guard by what Arnold had said and replied "well of course I do Arnold, what would make you think I didn't."

Arnold completely frustrated at this point simply said "well you text me at 1am Lila, and constantly grabbing my hand ... I thought you were just ... kinda ... into me ... that's all ..."

Lila looked at Arnold blankly and said "well I'm sorry you got the wrong idea Arnold, but you're one of my BESTfriends ... I don't ever know where you would get that idea Arnold ... I'm with Matt ..."

Arnold becoming more frustrated than before simply looked at Lila and said "you know what I better get going, I have things to work on Lila. I'll see you around ..."

Lila looking at Arnold still confused with the situation said "well alright Arnold, but I am ever so sorry if you got the wrong idea ..."

As Arnold just walked down the hall disregarding what Lila had said just didn't want to deal with it at that point. He didn't bother to look back to see if she was still standing there or not and just started walking down the street. Until he saw a black convertible with a red headed girl with braids in the passenger seat drive right by. He knew right then that it was Lila and she really didn't regard anything he had said.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys, so been really busy and everything with exams and whatnot, but found some time to work on chapter 7, I didn't know where I should go from chapter 6, but I managed to think something up. I do plan on editing chapter 6 a little and make it slightly revised, since I had, had a couple of drinks that night at the fashion show when I wrote that chapter after getting home, my apologies. So please enjoy this, and I'll post when I do edit chapter 6.**

**Warning: This is a short chapter, my apologies! Next one will be what's going on with Arnold and Lila, with advice coming from Gerald and Phoebe.  
**

**Enjoy guys**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Hey Arnold.**

_New Friendships and Bad Decisions_

"Well we were thinking maybe checking out a show at the Garrett, if you're down?" Monica looked at Helga as they stood observing they're surroundings.

"That sounds cool, what time's the show at?" Helga looked at all three of them.

"Well not till about 7, so we should head over there around 6." Jon replied back to Helga.

"K cool, what should we do till-" Helga got cut off by Quin looking at her with one eyebrow raised.

"Where were you anyways?" Quin shot at Helga as if spitting venom at her with each word.

Helga looked at Quin raising one eyebrow at her with her arms crossed. "I bumped into Gabe, what's it to you?" Helga was pretty annoyed at Quin for cutting her off mid sentence.

Quin shot Helga another look and replied "well we WERE waiting you know."

Helga simply replied back to Quin not caring for her attitude "ya well whatever, I'm here now, what's done is done, get over it."

Monica and Jon didn't really pay attention to Quin's attitude towards Helga and just looked back at Helga and smiled.

"So to answer your question Helga, we were thinking maybe heading over to the West End Cafe before the show and maybe just hang out there for a bit." Monica smiled at Helga.

Helga looked at Monica and smiled and said "cool sounds great, should we head out now then."

The group of 4 started walking towards the bus stop, though it being about 6 blocks away Quin insisted on bussing there since she believed it would be easier to get there, despite the fact they needed to wait 20 minutes for the bus. Once finally arriving at the West End Cafe, they walked in and ordered they're drinks. Helga ordered a royal tea latte, and the others just ordered black coffee.

Quin scoffed at Helga's drink, while Helga simply rolled her eyes at Quin. Helga thought to herself 'what's her problem today.' but carried on grabbing her drink from the bar.

It was almost 6 pm, so the gang decided to head out to check out the show.

Helga was really feeling the music and just enjoying the atmosphere. Monica and Jon came over to Helga carrying a red cups and handed one to Helga.

At the time she had no idea what it was that they were carry, but the moment she took a sip she nearly spit it out. She looked at Monica and Jon and said, "What is this?!"

Monica and Jon laughed a little and said to Helga "its just beer Helga"

She looked at them wide eyed, then finally snapping out of it and not wanting to embarrass herself she just shrugged her shoulders and took another small sip.

The adrenaline was coursing through Helga's veins as the music kept filling the room. Drink after drink was consumed as Helga danced away and lost herself in the music. Finally Monica, Jon and Quin came up to Helga and caught her attention. Monica and Jon said that they should be heading out since they didn't want to stay too long plus Jon was barely able to keep himself up.

Monica mentioned how Quin was planning on staying for a bit longer and maybe they could just head out together once the show was over. Quin smirked at Helga and said, "I really don't mind, plus we never get to hang out one on one anyways."

Helga feeling the buzz quite a bit just giggle and nodded, then gave Monica and Jon a hug as they headed out to leave.

Quin and Helga stayed a little longer getting to know some of the band members from the opening acts. They seem quite interested in Helga, but she paid no attention to the fact, though Quin did pay quite a bit attention to the fact.

It was starting to get quite late so Helga and Quin decided to head home, Helga still tipsy from all the drinking, Quin decided that this would be the best time to find out IF anything did happen between Helga and Gabe at all.

She turned to Helga and decided to ask, "So what's going on between you and Gabe?"

Helga snorted while her head tilted to the sky, "Gabe, that guys just a dumb jock! We just walk home together once in awhile, the guy's probably just lonely and doesn't want to walk alone!" she continued laughing.

Quin then decided to press on just to make sure nothing was going on between the two, and that nothing WILL go on between the two, EVER. "So you're not into him you're saying? Just taking pity on him?"

Helga then swayed a little and giggled, "Definitely not into him, not unless he has a football shaped head, blonde hair and amazing green eyes, then DEFINITELY no!"

Quin was a little confused at that point, but decided that was good enough for her, seeing Helga was obviously interested in someone else. So she decided to change the subject.

"So we never really do get to hang out just you and I Helga, how bout we hang out tomorrow?"

Helga smiled and agreed, still drunkenly swaying down the street taking in the cold air.

"Alright cool, I'll call you tomorrow around 1?"

"Sounds GREAAAT! I will see you tomorrow!" as Helga stumbled into her house fumbling with her keys.


	8. Chapter 8

**Ok my apologies the last couple of months have been crazy, but I can assure you I haven't forgotten about the story. I will admit though I did have to reread the entire story just to freshen my brain up on where I left off.**

**So this would be where Arnold is left off and how he deals with the news about Lila. I want to make this a little more intense for you guys since I definitely have more time to actually focus on the story. So please enjoy and I do enjoy getting the feed back, I feel I've been lacking inspiration so any advice or feed back is awesome.**

_Chapter 8_

Gerald's phone vibrated in his pocket with a message from Arnold. "Hey Gerald, you busy?" He was with Phoebe, but he didn't want to shut Arnold out, in case something was wrong since he was being quite distant from him, but then again it could be his fault for spending so much time with Phoebe instead.

He replied back to Arnold with a simple "nah man, what's up?"

"I just saw Lila …"

"And what happened man? You seem bummed?"

"Well I saw her with her boyfriend …"

Gerald in complete disbelief replied back "you serious man?!"

Arnold couldn't help but feel more disappointed and simply replied back to the shocked boy over the phone with a simple "ya man."

Gerald looked over at Pheobe who seemed to be more confused than anything, and told Arnold to hang on a sec. After Arnold obliged to hanging on a second on the phone, Gerald looked at Pheobe and said "Arnold needs me right now Pheobe, can we maybe hang out another time?"

Pheobe being the understanding person she always is simply replied, "of course Gerald, Arnold is your best friend. If Helga needed me I'd be right by her side in a moment."

Gerald smiled at Pheobe and told her he'd drive her home since it was getting late and he didn't want to just leave her like that. He went back on the phone and told Arnold he'd be there in 10 minutes he just needs to drop Pheobe off at home.

Arnold was relieved he knew he could count on Gerald to be there for him, no matter what the situation.

20 minutes had passed and Gerald finally showed up at the boarding house. He apologized for being late, but Arnold really didn't mind since he cancelled his plans to be with Pheobe to be there for him.

As the two walked up to Arnold`s room he couldn`t help but think of what was going on in Arnold`s head, since if he were in that situation he wouldn't give up that easily.

The 2 boys entered the room and Gerald sat on the couch while Arnold plopped himself onto his bed with his head hanging low. Gerald didn't want to make the situation worse so he just simply asked Arnold what happened exactly.

Arnold still feeling a bit low about the whole situation took a breath in and then started off with, "well I was going to go see Lila, then I saw her at her locker …"

Gerald looking blankly at Arnold just nodded his head and let him carry on.

"Well I saw this guy with his hands around her waist …" he couldn't help but feel the jealously surge through his body and continued with a little more anger in his voice. "Then I saw him kiss her."

Gerald could tell in the tone of his best friend's voice Arnold was really angry about the situation. He didn't want to say anything to make him more mad and just simply said to him "well did you say anything to him? … or in that case, to Lila?"

Then Arnold's face fell, and he couldn't help but feel completely defeated at that moment and said to his best friend sitting across from him on his couch, "that's the think Gerald I couldn't even completely confront Lila about it. All I was able to say to her was I thought she was into me." As Arnold started to get angry again but this time not at what happened, but at himself and continued to say to his best friend, "all I was able to say to her was that, then all she had to say to me was that I am one of her 'BEST friends.'"

Gerald sitting on the couch couldn't help but say to his best friend who was obviously more angry with his handling of the situation than that of Lila, "mmm, mmm, mmm man, that's just harsh."

Arnold looking at Gerald couldn't help but say, "you're telling me man, she seemed to not care that she had been flirting with me for months now, making it seem like she was into, when this whole time she had a boyfriend!"

"That just ain't right man. She should have told you sooner, instead of pulling you along this whole time man."

"Ya, that was the least she could have done. Maybe Helga was right, Lila is just a tease …"

Gerald lifting his eyebrow at Arnold this time, "I thought you were over this whole 'Helga thing'?"

Arnold looking at Gerald rolling his eyes "I wasn't saying I'm still 'into' Helga, I'm just saying maybe Helga was right this whole time about Lila just being a tease and wanting the boy's attention."

Gerald shrugging his shoulder simply smirked at Arnold and said "whatever you say man." Then continued on to say about Arnold's statement about Lila, "well you know chicks Arnold my man, they love the attention, I wouldn't be surprised if Lila wasn't different from the rest of them."

Arnold feeling to jump to the defence this time, "well Lila isn't like that she was always so caring!"

Gerald being the logical thinker when it came to thing Arnold didn't want to see just said to his best friend since preschool "she is still a girl Arnold, girls love attention, it doesn't matter if they're into you or not, they want to make sure they have the attention they want."

Arnold couldn't help but feel defeated by Gerald's statement and couldn't help but agree with his best friend.

Gerald knowing he got through to his best friend couldn't help but notice the time, and told Arnold he should be heading home now since he didn't want to get home too late before his parents sent out a search party for him. Arnold agreed and the 2 did their secret handshake and Gerald was off.

Before Arnold headed to bed he couldn't help but think about what had happened with Lila and with that he knew he shouldn't just give up, he had to do something.


	9. Chapter 9

**So I was going to attempt to post a new chapter yesterday evening, but I ended up at a movie instead ... sorry guys. But I managed to finish a chapter tonight! Yay! Enjoy, and reviews are much appreciated!**

_Trip Planning__**  
**_

"Ugh … someone turn the lights off …" as Helga pulled the covers over her head. While laying there she wondered to herself what happened last night and how did she get home. She reached over to her nightstand trying not to remove the blanket shielding her from the rays of sunlight peaking through the curtains.

It seems she had missed a few texts from Monica, John, and … Quin … Why was Quin texting her she was asking herself, she seemed to not understand why she would be texting her to begin with. She instead just decided to reply to each of the texts, since she didn't feel like letting them think she was dead or ignoring their texts. Though the only one to reply back first was Quin, which was odd since they don't talk all that much.

Just then the doorbell rang and Helga couldn't help but think who would be coming to her door this early, despite the fact that it was 1 in the afternoon. Her head was still pounding from the events of last night so she yelled from her bed "Miriam door!" only to receive no reply back in attempt she yelled it again. But after no reply again she had no choice but to get out of bed and check whom it was at the door.

While she pulled herself up from the bed, she couldn't help but cringed a little the moment her feet touched the ground and she had to meet with the stream of lights entering her room. Stepping into the hallway and down the hall to the stairs she couldn't help but mumble "criminey, no one can do anything around here. I have to do everything …"

When she reached the door she was surprised to find Gabe standing at the door with his big goofy smile. "Hey stranger! Long time no talk!"

"Uhhh … hi …" that was all that was able to come out of Helga's mouth at the moment, considering Gabe's girlfriend obviously disliked Helga the moment they met.

"So are you going to invite me in or what?" Gabe said with the same goofy smile on his face.

"Ya sure, but how 'bout we head out somewhere, in case Big Bob get home or something." Helga still confused with what was going on at that moment.

"What did you have in mind then? We can head to the park or something, or just take a walk around if you want." Gabe said while stepping into the house.

"Ya, ya, ya can you keep it down a little, my head is still pounding here, plus I still need to get changed anyways."

"Alright I'll just wait down here till your done then."

Rushing up the stairs Helga didn't want to keep Gabe waiting too long, so she quickly grabbed some clothes and threw them on, since she didn't see any point in really putting an effort into how she looked at that moment.

As she walked down the stairs, Gabe looked up at her and smile and said, "you look great!"

Helga not believing him rolled her eyes and said to him, "don't even bucko."

Gabe couldn't help but laugh at her typical reaction to any form of compliment and just said to her, "so I was thinking making we can just go and walk down the train tracks."

Helga not caring too much about what they'd do, but more curious as to why he just randomly showed up at her house unannounced simply agreed and the two teens headed out the door.

"So, why did you show up so randomly today?" Helga not wanting to wait to find out, since it was the one thing that really got her wondering.

"Well we haven't talked much, and plus I miss hanging out with you. Haven't you missed my annoyance?" he said teasingly to Helga.

"That's really the only reason you came to my house unannounced? There's nothing else 'bugging' you?"

"Nothing you have to be concerned about if that's what you're wondering." Gabe said assuring Helga.

Helga on the other hand wasn't buying into it and continued to push on. "So you mean to tell me nothing is bothering you at all?"

"Well ya there is something, but it doesn't have anything to do with you, it's more about Sandy."

"Well then just spill it, obviously you want to get it off your chest, DOI!"

"Ok, well fine, we broke up …"

Helga being as surprised as she was, did not see this coming at all, and couldn't help but fell bad for Gabe. "Oh that totally sucks, I'm so sorry … are you ok?"

"Ya I'll be ok, she was just being too controlling, and her friends were just ridiculous. I just don't understand them, they just kept going on and on about how I'm actually friends with you."

Helga feeling a little flattered but still horrible about the fact that she was the purpose of their break up felt like she needed to fix it, but how. "Well that's a stupid reason to break up because some girls have some opinions about me, who really I'm just your neighbour."

"You're not just a neighbour Helga." Gabe said pretty sternly to her. "You're more than just my neighbour, you're one of my closest friends."

Helga feeling more flattered couldn't help but start putting up walls again, even though she knew she wanted to be a changed person from who she was back in Hillwood. "Well bucko, we haven't even officially known each other for a year, and yet I'm one of your closest friends. Sounds a little dumb to me if you ask me."

Gabe knowing Helga to say something along those lines couldn't help but feel hurt by what she said and not feeling the same way about their relationship with each other. But he knew not to say something that would ultimately piss Helga off in the end and decided to just respond to her statement with, "Well we've gotten to know each other so well, and you may not feel that way, but I trust you, plus whom else can I go and annoy at all hours of the day."

She knew at that moment he was trying to lighten the mood and change the subject since it was starting to really get to him. So she decided to go with the change of topic and asked him, "well what did you have plan for this summer? Any crazy trips or parties planned?"

"I was thinking of maybe going for a trip, but nothing really comes to mind at all. What about you, planning on going back to your hometown to visit your old pals?"

Helga totally forgetting that, that would be the perfect time to visit Phoebe stopped for a second and thought 'ya maybe I will go see Phoebs this summer.' "Well I never really thought about it till now, but ya maybe I will go back to go see good old Phoebs, she's probably completely lost without me."

"That sounds good, how long do you think you'll be away for then?"

"What, you're going to miss you once I'm gone?" Teasing Gabe a little she couldn't help it, but she knew he knew she was kidding around. "I was thinking maybe a couple of weeks, maybe even a month. I'm not too sure yet, I wanna get Phoebe's opinion maybe, but then again if it were up to her, she would want me to stay forever."

"Well that's going to be a lonely 2 or so weeks then." As he nudged Helga on the arm.

"Don't worry you'll barely notice I'm gone, trust me."

Then at that moment a thought came to Gabe's mind, "maybe I'll come visit while you're there. That is if you don't mind, I want to get out of the city anyways. Plus Hilton sounds like a fun place."

"Hilton … really, you mean Hillwood right?"

Gabe slightly embarrassed that he completely got the name wrong, laughed with embarrassment and corrected himself, "ya I meant Hillwood."

"Ya, good save there. Who knows where you would've ended up then if you were to get tickets to get out of the city."

"So I take it as a yes that it's ok if I go visit you while you're in Hillwood."

Helga a little hesitant about the idea decided well if he really wants to see the 'glory' that is of Hillwood, who am I to stop him and simply responded back to him, "well if you really want to. Wait to have 2 weeks of your life taken away that you'll never be able to get back."

And with that, it was pretty much settled, Helga and Gbae would spend part of their summer together, in Hillwood.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys I was meaning to put this up yesterday after work, but I got unbelievably sick, but I managed to finish up the chapter today. So I hope you guys enjoy it and I'm loving all the feedback! Thanks again for reading!  
**

* * *

_Late Night Phone Calls  
_

* * *

"Who would be calling at this time?" Phoebe said out loud as she walked across the room to answer the phone.

"Hey Phoebs, how's it hanging?" the voice from the other end said.

"Helga! Hi! I had no idea you were going to call today!" A wide grin swept across Phoebe's face just hearing her best friend's voice on the other end of the line.

"Ya so about that. I was just calling to let you know I'm heading down to Hillwood this summer, I wanted to get your input on how long I should stay."

"Oh really?! That sounds wonderful! How long would you like to stay?"

"Well I was thinking a few weeks, maybe a month, if you didn't mind that is. Since you know, you and tall hair boy are getting all close and attached at the hip and all."

Phoebe giggled at the statement Helga just made, and simply responded with, "well I really don't think Gerald would mind, plus Arnold and him could spend more time together. Arnold seems to be a little more on the depressed side lately."

Helga forgetting the possibility of Arnold seeing Gabe and her together this summer in Hillwood hadn't crossed her mind when Gabe brought up the idea of them going to Hillwood together. "Oh …" was all that was able to come out of Helga's mouth at that moment.

"Sorry Helga, I didn't mean to bring him up. I'm just worried about him that's all. He called Gerald a couple of nights ago and it seemed pretty serious that Gerald had to head straight down there after dropping me off at home."

Helga wanting to know more about what had happened and why Arnold has been down in the dumps lately, but decided against it, since it would only hurt her more knowing what was causing so much pain to the football headed teen. "Don't worry about it Phoebs, you always worry about everyone. I'm sure it's nothing, probably just a Lila problem." And there it was, she couldn't help herself but say something that of course would get Phoebe talking about what may be the problem.

"That's a possibility, they have been spending time together, but no confirmation if they're actually together. Maybe things didn't work out the way Arnold had hoped between the two." As the little Asian girl on the other line pondered on about.

Hearing that Arnold and Lila may not even be together gave Helga a shred of hope, but then reality came knocking down on her. Who was she kidding, she lives across the country from Arnold, plus he probably forgot all about her. "Well could be anything, tall hair boy probably got through to the guy anyways, so don't sweat it Phoebs."

"You're probably right Helga!" as a smile once again swept across Phoebe's face. She decided to get back on track about their original conversation and went on to say, "So when do you think you'll be heading down here to Hillwood?"

Helga relieved that conversation was over, went back to think about the trip this summer to Hillwood. "I was thinking possibly July." And with that she just remembered Gabe. "Oh and I forgot to mention, my buddy Gabe will be coming down with me."

Phoebe a little surprised at first but then with excitement in her voice, "so you invited him to come along with you here to Hillwood?"

"Phoebe before you get the wrong idea, no we're not together, and second off, he invited himself."

"He invited himself?" Phoebe said with a confused tone to her usual perky voice.

"Ya something about him wanting to get out of the city for the summer, then asked if I was going to Hillwood this summer, which really he gave me the idea to go there this summer. Then he asked if I mind if he were to come to Hillwood as well. Who am I to stop him, it's a free country right."

"Oh I see, well then I'll try to plan a few things for all of us to do. Gerald probably wouldn't mind coming with, since Gabe would be with us too."

"Well I guess sure, probably doesn't want to hang out with just girls this summer anyways. Plus how bad could it be him hanging out with tall hair boy."

"Sounds great, I'll bring the idea by Gerald tomorrow."

"Sounds good Phoebs. Anyways I'll let you get some shuteye, it's probably crazy late over there. Night Phoebs."

Phoebe couldn't help but giggle, considering it was 11 at night. "Sounds good Helga, talk to you soon. Bye!"

* * *

Phoebe was too excited about the news and couldn't help but dial Gerald's number and tell him about the exciting news of her best friend.

"Hello?" a voice from the other line sounded a little confused and tired.

"HI Gerald! I have some fantastic news!" Phoebe couldn't wait but to cut to the chase about Helga.

"Phoebe is that you?" he was still trying to wake himself up.

"Of course it's me Gerald. Who else would be calling you at this hour?"

"Oh just a little confused why you're calling me at this time."

"Well I have some exciting news!"

"What is it? You're taking summer courses this summer?"

Phoebe not impressed with his sarcasm decided to ignore it since the news from Helga couldn't ruin her mood. "No silly! Helga's coming here this summer!"

"Helga's what?!" Gerald couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Helga, she's coming to visit this summer! And she's bringing her friend with her!" Phoebe was so excited about it.

"So you're telling me Helga's coming here this summer and she's bringing a friend with her …" he was still confused about what was going on.

"Yes! Isn't it exciting!"

"And what does this have to do with me exactly?" Gerald was curious as to why he had anything to do with Helga's visit back to Hillwood.

"Well you don't expect me to entertain her friend only do you Gerald."

"And what am I supposed to do hanging out with a bunch of chicks all summer exactly?" still not understanding why he was involved in these plans.

"What do you mean 'chicks'?" Phoebe a little lost at this point in the conversation.

"Well Helga's bringing a friend with her right?" raising his eyebrow as he said that.

"Well ya, but I never said she'd be bringing a girl with her." Phoebe said assuringly.

"So wait … You're telling me she's bringing a GUY with her to Hillwood?!"

"Well not just a guy Gerald, a really good friend she made out there."

"Well what about Arnold? I can't just ditch my best friend this summer to hang out with some guy I don't even know. Better yet a guy Helga is probably dating."

"Well I never said Arnold can't come along as well Gerald, I only assumed both of you would want to see Helga anyways."

"Well I'll see what Arnold thinks, you know with his whole childhood bully coming back and all."

"Well sounds good, anyways it is late and I just wanted to let you know! I'll see you tomorrow! Goodnight Gerald."

"Goodnight Phoebe."

After Phoebe had hung up the phone the only thing that was able to go through the teen's head was 'mmm, mmm, mmm, this does not look good.'


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys I'm getting really excited where the story is going and love all the feedback I'm getting from you guys! Things are going to be getting really intense in the next few chapters so I hope you're enjoying the ones I've been posting! Thanks again for all the supports guys!**

* * *

_Word Gets Around Fast_

* * *

"Oh hey football head" a blonde hair figure in front of him said.

"Hey, how's it going?" a simple reply came from the teen boys mouth.

"Not too bad, been awhile since we've been here wouldn't you say football head?"

"You're telling me, but I can't help but remember all the good times we had at PS 118."

"Ya they were pretty good weren't they."

"Some of the best times of my life were spent here … especially with you Helga." As he said that his hand reach for hers.

'Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold!' He couldn't help but be woken up by this alarm.

The only thing to go through his mind at that time was 'what was that all about?'

He shook his head and ran his hands through his hair to help him bring himself back to reality from the dream. Then reached over to grab his phone to see if he had any missed messages.

There was one from Gerald saying something about meeting him at his place in the morning, he had something to tell him. Arnold sat there and thought to himself it probably has something to do with Phoebe.

So Arnold got up from bed to get ready to head to class that morning before Gerald got there. Not being able to get Helga out of his head he thought maybe he should ask Phoebe today about how she was doing.

After getting ready he heard his doorbell ring, and figured perfect timing for Gerald to get there. As he headed down the stairs he yelled from the door "bye grandpa, bye grandma!" then headed out the door to meet Gerald.

As the two walked down the steps he looked over at Gerald while fixing his bag, "so what was it that you had to tell me?"

"K man, you gotta promise not to freak out first."

"Alright, it can't be that bad can it?" Arnold asked a little confused.

"K man, but seriously you gotta PROMISE me you won't freak out or do something crazy."

Arnold getting a little annoyed now at Gerald, "Ok I promise, can you just tell me what it is Gerald?"

As Gerald took a deep breath in and shut his eyes he began with, "it's about Helga …"

Arnold a little surprised didn't know what to think at first, then the worst started to come to mind. But as he promised Gerald he wouldn't freak out, he calmly looked at his best friend and said, "ok, what about Helga?"

Then the tall haired teen began to speak again, "well Phoebe called me last night, apparently she spoke with Helga, and well …" he didn't want to tell Arnold in case he'd get excited only to find out Helga's possibly bringing her 'boyfriend' with her.

"Ok and what did Helga say to Phoebe that has you so concerned?" Arnold a little annoyed with Gerald taking his time telling him what it was that he said he needed to tell him.

"Well she's coming …"

Only to be interrupted by someone from behind them. "Hello Arnold, hello Gerald. It's ever so lovely to see you guys this morning!"

Gerald caught off guard looked over and saw Lila right behind them.

Arnold a little annoyed to see her, quickly glanced at her and replied, "hi Lila. Anyways as you were saying Gerald."

Gerald could tell Arnold was still upset with what had happened with Arnold and Lila, couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at that moment and looked at Arnold and said, "you sure you don't want to talk about this privately man?"

Lila looking at them both slightly confused and feeling like she was intruding said to the two, "I can go if you guys want, I didn't mean to intrude."

Arnold quickly said, "it's fine, you can stay, it's not like it's a big secret Gerald's telling me."

Gerald still feeling a little uncomfortable simply replied, "Alright man. As I was saying, well Helga's going to be here this summer. That's what I was meaning to tell you this morning. That's why Phoebe called me last night, she was too excited to wait till today to tell me."

Arnold couldn't help but feel happy about the news, as a grin swept across his face.

Lila couldn't help but smile and said, "Well that's ever so lovely! When will she be coming? I think we should get the whole gang back together while she's here, I'm ever so certain Rhonda would love to see here!"

Gerald couldn't help but think the opposite of what Rhonda would think to see Helga again. But he couldn't help but reply to Lila, "well I'll give Phoebe the heads up and maybe she can see if Helga is up to it."

"Well that would ever be so sweet of you to do Gerald! Anyways I'm going to go catch up with Rhonda, I'll see you two later. Have a good day guys!"

Gerald once again took a deep breath in and said to Arnold, "well wouldn't that be a sight to see, Helga and Rhonda face to face. Man oh man that's just asking for a disaster to happen."

Arnold still not saying a word and just processing the fact that Helga would be back in Hillwood this summer couldn't help but nod his head to his best friend.

Gerald couldn't help but think 'mmm, mmm, mmm, and the chaos begins.'

* * *

"I heard the news Phoebe." A tall dark haired girl behind her said.

"Oh, why hello Rhonda. What news are you talking about?" Phoebe unaware the word about her best friend has seemed to travel throughout the school.

"Well of course about Helga, whomever else would I be talking about?" as she brushed her hand through her hair.

"Oh and where did you happen to hear this news?" Phoebe was quite curious as to how Rhonda of all people had found out so quickly.

"Well Lila was coming to school this morning with Gerald and Arnold, and well apparently they were discussing with Lila how Helga will be coming back this summer to visit. Although I do not recall Helga ever telling us she was leaving in the first place."

"Well Rhonda it is under Helga's discretion whether she wants to mention her personal life to others of course."

"Well you'd think she would at least tell her friends she practically grew up with about her leaving Hillwood of course."

"Well that is quite true, but then again you do know Helga, to be more of the secretive type." Phoebe couldn't help but defend Helga.

"Well forget about that anyways. I was thinking we should all get together, at the summer lake house when Helga is here. And of course my parents being gracious enough has rented us a place out there, which will more than accommodating for all of us."

"That is awfully nice of your parents, they didn't have to do that. Plus I haven't been able to pass this information along to Helga yet. She doesn't even know that you are aware of her homecoming."

"That won't be a problem now will it Phoebe. We all grew up together and I think with her leaving abruptly without a single word to any of us is something she herself Helga can do."

"I can assume so. I'll try calling her tonight, and see if her friend would be ok with this as well."

Rhonda a little more intrigued since she didn't hear about Helga bringing a friend along with her. "A friend you say? I didn't hear about Helga bringing a friend with her."

"Oh well yes she is, She told me last night. I myself don't know too much about him, but from what she has told me he does sound nice."

"'Him' you say? Helga G. Pataki is bringing a BOY to Hillwood?!"

"I assumed you knew since you knew of Helga coming here this summer."

"I guess Lila failed to inform me of this juicy information."

"Well yes, it's a boy from her school who happens to be her neighbour as well. He voluntarily said he'd love to join Helga this summer in Hillwood."

Rhonda thought to herself 'voluntarily' now, that could only mean one thing, Helga G. Pataki has a boyfriend!

"Well Phoebe it was great talking to you but I must be going now, I do need to get myself ready for first period class. I will see you later."

"It was nice talking to you too Rhonda. See you later."


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys, so I didn't think I would be able to write this today, considering I was at an event today, but it ended early. So here I am, writing the next chapter. I am loving all the feedback from you guys, you guys are absolutely awesome! I'm going to try my best at getting a chapter done at least once a week, if not more. **

**Also sorry for some of the errors in the story, I've been writing this normally really late at night so spelling and whatnot is quite off I assume. And not proof reading has a lot to do with it.**

**Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Feedback is much appreciated! And also thanks so much for following!**

* * *

_Trip Planning Part 2  
_

* * *

The hours ticking away at the clock couldn't go by slow enough. 'When will this class be over!' Helga couldn't help but think to herself. Flashbacks from the dream last night couldn't leave her mind. It kept her distracted and a little on edge that whole day.

What was it that Arnold had such a strong hold even being this far away she couldn't help but think. Thinking and thinking it over she came to a possible conclusion as the final bell rang, 'it's probably because I'm going there this summer and most likely will end up seeing him' she thought to herself missing the bell that had just rung.

"Hey I texted you yesterday, you didn't reply after I texted you back." A voice from behind Helga came about.

Snapping out of her thoughts she looked over and found Quin hovering over her. "Oh sorry, ya Gabe showed up out of no where yesterday and wanted to talk, sorry about that."

Quin mood had suddenly shifted slightly. "Oh? Gabe showed up at your place? What did he want to talk to YOU about exactly?" her voice sounding a little harsh.

"Well not much, just Sandy dumping him and all, that's about it." Helga said while grabbing her bag to head out of class.

"Sandy broke up with Gabe?" Helga couldn't help but hear some enthusiasm in her voice as she said that.

"Well ya, something about being friends with me and her friends being immature. I'm not too sure, to be perfectly honest. My head was still pounding from the night before. By the way, what did happen?"

"Well we just hung out and maybe had a bit too many to drink, but you made it home safe and sound." Quin replied, but still anxious as to what exactly happened between Sandy and Gabe.

"Well I figured that much since I woke up in my room. What happened with Monica and John?"

"Well they left earlier than us, so they asked me to make sure you got home safely. But anyways back to what happened with Sandy and Gabe, What exactly was it that Sandy and her friends didn`t like?"

"I'm not too sure, I guess they just don't trust me or think I'm coming onto Gabe. When clearly I haven't really been talking or hanging out with him since they started dating. But anyways I gotta head home, I have to call my sister up back home, it's probably getting pretty late down there."

"Oh? Why are you calling your sister?"

"Gotta set up plans to crash at her place while in Hillwood this summer, She'll be 'ever so happy her baby sis is coming home'" Helga couldn't help but cringe while saying that.

"Oh, alright then. I'll see you later then." As Quin started to walk the opposite direction from where Helga was going.

Helga grabbed her phone out of her pocket to check for any missed messages. She found one from Phoebe, something about calling her later about some details concerning her trip this summer. 'Euh, probably something about planning an itinerary for my trip back to Hillwood' Helga thought to herself.

'I guess I should text Olga and let her know I'll be calling her later tonight' she thought to herself.

The walk home was nice and peaceful for once, so she took her time considering it was actually a pretty nice day. The breeze was perfect and the sunny was bright, and there was just enough cloudy coverage that made it not too unbearably hot out. Finally reaching her street and pulled her phone out one more time to check her messages and as well as the time.

When she looked at her phone she found a message from Olga saying, 'Oh baby sis! I can't wait to talk to you tonight! I have so much to tell you!' and then another one from Gabe, 'Hey so I thought we can get together tonight to plan the trip tonight, since schools almost over and all.' She figured Gabe was right so replied back to him with a simple 'sure, head over whenever you feel.' And with that put her phone back into her pocket so she could unlock her front door.

When she opened the door she held into the house, "Hey Miriam, Bob, I'm home." No reply was heard so she shrugged her shoulders and figured Big Bob was still at the Beeper Emporium and Miriam was out getting more booze. So she heading up to her room to put her bag away and possibly change into something more comfortable.

After setting her bag down she heard her doorbell ring, she couldn't help but think 'man, when I said whenever, I didn't mean right now, jeeze.' As she headed down the stairs to the front door she opened it and found Gabe with his usual goofy smile.

"Hey you ready for some trip planning!" he said with a giant grin on his face.

Helga not very impressed with his time said "ya, ya, ya get in."

Gabe couldn't help but laugh because of her usual grumpy mood and stepped into the house heading towards her living room.

"Where do you think you're going?" Helga said with her eyebrow raised.

He couldn't help but look at her confused. "Well I figured we'd be doing the planning in your living room or something."

"Oh no bucko, so you can meet my parents, no thank you! It's this way bucko!" as she signalled upstairs.

He had no choice but to follow her upstairs and hoped her dad or someone wouldn't get upset with him if they were to find a guy up in her room.

When they reached Helga's room she plopped herself onto her bed, and Gabe figured the only place left to sit was at her desk. Helga looked his direction and said to him, "well I didn't think you'd show up this early, so I have to call my sister Olga, you can look at flight prices or something."

Gabe a little confused, couldn't help but ask Helga, "you have a sister?"

"Well DOI! Of course I have a sister, where do you think we'll be staying in Hillwood?! Phoebe's parents aren't about to let a boy stay over there!"

Gabe thought to himself for a moment and replied to Helga, "Well I guess your right, I didn't really think about where we'd stay."

"Of course you didn't! Anyways I need to call Olga before she makes a big deal out of me calling late."

"Alright I'll look for a good deal on flights then."

Helga grabbed her phone and began dialling Olga's number, with only half a ring sure enough a high pitched "BABY SIS!" was said on the other line.

"Hi Olga." Helga said to her sister on the other line.

"It's so nice to hear from you baby sis! I spoke with daddy, but you seem to be out most of the time when I ask to talk to you! You must be making a lot of friends out there baby sis!"

"Ya, tons …" as Helga rolled her eyes.

"So what was it that you needed to tell me baby sis?"

"Well I figured it's summer time and I wanna see Phoebs and all, I was wondering if it would be cool if I came there this summer."

"Well of course baby sister! You're always welcome here! When do you plan on coming?!" the sheer enthusiasm in Olga's voice had Helga cringing.

"I was thinking July probably. Oh by the way, is it cool if my friend comes and stays there as well?"

"Well of course your little friend can stay here too baby sister! We can have a slumber party every night!"

"Uhhh … Olga … He's not a girl …" Helga couldn't help but chuckle a little knowing how naïve her sister can be sometimes.

"Oh? You're bringing a boy?" Olga's voice got a little more serious.

"Ya, don't worry though, he's just a friend, he wanted to get out of the city this summer, and I offered for him to come to Hillwood."

"Ok, well I guess so, but you two will have to sleep in separate bedrooms." Olga replied a little hesitant.

"Well DOI! Of course we're going to sleep in separate rooms Olga!"

Olga was relieved to hear that. "Well then baby sis! Was that all you had to tell me?"

"Ya, basically. I'll let you know when we get our tickets to Hillwood, I just need to tell Big Bob, and then it should be settled."

"Oh alright baby sis! I'll tell daddy right away that you'll be staying with me so he doesn't have to worry! Anyways I have to teach my class tomorrow morning, I'll talk to you soon baby sister! Goodnight!"

"Goodnight Olga." As Helga pressed the end button to end the conversation.

"So we good on accommodations?" Gabe said as he turned around from her desk.

"Ya Olga's got us covered."

"That's good, I found a few good deals, the sale seats are on until July, so I'd say the sooner we buy them the better the chance they don't sell out."

"Sounds good, I just have to pass it by Big Bob, he'll probably be more than willing to pay to get me out of the house this summer anyways."

"Alright then that sounds good. I just need to pass it by my parents as well, they've been asking if I wanted to go anywhere this summer anyways."

"K well I guess that's settled, all we need to do now is get our folks to pay the tickets and then just wait it out till we can leave."

"I guess so."

"Well anyways, I'm gonna get my homework done, you probably need to do the same, so I'll see you tomorrow I guess."

"Sure thing, I'll walk with you to school tomorrow. See you at 8 then?"

"Uh … sure I guess. See you at 8 tomorrow."

And with that Gabe headed down the stairs with Helga following behind to lock the door.


	13. Chapter 13

**K guys we're almost there, when Helga heads back to Hillwood, just maybe 2 more Chapters to go then they'll be in Hillwood. I'm actually having a lot of fun writing this and I like all the feedback from you guys. **

**Just to cover a few things about the whole Gerald thing, he wanted to keep the whole Helga being back hush hush, just for the sake of Phoebe in case she didn't want people to know about it.**

**Anyways I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter of the story, and I look forward to reading more reviews! Thanks again guys!**

* * *

_Chapter 13_

* * *

'I hope Helga is home' Phoebe thought to herself as she dialled her number.

A few rings later a voice from the other line finally answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi Helga! I hope I'm not interrupting you or anything." Phoebe said from the other line.

"Of course not Phoebs. I was actually wondering when you were going to call."

"That's quite nice to hear Helga. Well I actually called to tell you something about your visit here this summer."

"Ya? What about it?" Helga replied, all while getting comfortable on her bed.

"Well it seems Rhonda knows about you coming here this summer, and insisted all of us from PS118 get together this summer at a lake house. Her parents have already offered to rent the place for all of us. But I know you weren't keen on telling everyone you were leaving when you moved, so I was trying to keep it kind of secret that you were coming back. But it seems to me someone had mentioned something to Lila and I can only assume she told Rhonda about it."

"Rhonda of all people knows I'm coming?!" she couldn't help but feel annoyed that she had found out, but who was she kidding Hillwood isn't that big of a place to begin with. "Well I guess it was bound to happen, for everyone to find out I would be back this summer. I guess we can spend a weekend at the lake, but what about Gabe?"

"Well I did mention you had a friend visiting with you as well. It seemed Rhonda wasn't aware of that, but I'm certain she would be more than accommodating to Gabe when we go to the lake house."

"Well hopefully the last thing I need is Gabe hook up with one the 'girls.'"

"I can only assume so that they won't try to 'hook up' with your friend Helga. They should be more than respectful of your friend."

"Alright Phoebs, I hope your right. Was that all you had to tell me?"

"That and I was curious as to where you'd be staying? I would offer my place, but my parents wouldn't be thrilled to have a boy staying here to be honest with you Helga."

"Don't worry about it Phoebs. I spoke with Olga today, and she already has us set up to stay there."

"Well that's awfully nice of Olga to do that for you Helga." Phoebe was honestly happy that Olga had offered up her place for both Helga and Gabe.

"Ya well you can't beat family right." A sarcastic tone came from Helga's voice.

"You know Helga, Olga really does care about you, and I'm sure your whole family does." Phoebe knowing where her boundaries were with Helga.

"Ya well, they have a heck of a way of showing it. Anyways Phoebs, I know it's getting late there and you have class in the morning. I'll let you know when I have mine and Gabe's flights all figured out."

"That sounds great Helga. I'll talk to you soon then."

* * *

Helga glanced over at her closet after her talk with Phoebe and couldn't help but feel the urge to go and open up the packed up boxes she refused to unpack when she moved.

She got out of bed and started to walk over to the closet telling herself she really should, but who was she kidding, the school year was almost over and she was going to be back in Hillwood soon. So she grabbed the knob and twisted it open, and at the top of her closet sure enough was a box unlabeled.

She reached up and grabbed the box and slowly placed it down on the floor. She walked over to her desk and grabbed a letter opener, and soon enough the box was open.

It felt like forever since she had seen any of these things. The top was filled with stuff from her days at PS118 and the bottom was filled with worn down books it seemed that was all untitled.

The first thing she grabbed was a picture of the old gang sitting on Arnold's stoop. Then the next was her locket. How could she have not bothered to take that out all this time she wondered to herself. But for good reason she assumed, how else would she try to forget the boy that occupied her entire childhood.

As she dug deeper into the box she found her bow, sitting at the very bottom of the box in between the closed pages of another untitled book. She stared at it at first contemplating opening it or not. Then finally she picked it up and held it in her hands. And with a whisper in her voice she said out loud, "this must have been when I last wrote in this thing."

She didn't want to open it, but who was she kidding, seeing all these things from her past she couldn't help but want to remember more. She slowly opened to book to where the bow was laying and lifted the bow and squeezed it in her hand. She turned her attention back to the pages laying open in the book and began to read.

_My dearest Arnold,_

_I have loved you since the day we first met._

_The moment we first locked lips;_

_When you spoke your lines of undying love, as I was your Juliet, and you were my Romeo._

_Though it was only an act at the time, every word spoke, I spoke only of truth for you._

_Those days are long lost now, though my heart still beats for you._

_I must end this sick obsession of mine._

_For your love does not speak to me._

_You asked me one day if I have ever felt the pain you felt knowing someone does not like you back, _

_I had no answer at that time. _

_For I have felt this way since the moment we met, to the day we shall part ways._

_I'll always love you, for I cannot help but love you._

_But this obsession has reached its course,_

_I'll never forget you my love, but you've long forgotten me._

This must have been written not long before I moved. Helga thought to herself, as she wiped the single tear streaming down her face. She couldn't take it anymore. She closed the book and placed everything back into the box. Who was she kidding Arnold has forgotten about her, as she started to put the box back up on the top of her closet, a gold heart shaped pedant fell out, only to land in front of her feet, wide open.

The picture laid staring back at her with a half lidded gaze, and a smile that got her swooning every time. She couldn't help but fall to the ground in tears, in pure defeat. As tears streamed down her face she couldn't help but whisper quietly to herself "who am I kidding, I could never forget Arnold, like it said in my journal, I'll always love you Arnold, but you've already forgotten about me."

Her heart was breaking just thinking about seeing that football head again. His sweet voice, his caring heart, she just couldn't stop thinking about all the times he never gave up on anything.

If she only had the courage to have done something before she left, to let Arnold know exactly how much she has cared about him. But she didn't and it killed her knowing she would have to wonder what if.

As she sat there feeling sorry for herself she wiped the tears away from her face, and got up only to say out loud to herself "Helga, snap out of it, you've gotten this far without him, you can't go back to your old ways now. Tomorrow is a new day, and another day without him, you've proven to do well without him till now, you can sure do it longer than this." And with that she walked over to her bed and place the pendant into her nightstand drawer and walked out of her room.

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**Alright normally I don't write at the end of the chapter, but I just wanted to say sorry I wasn't too sure where I was going to take this chapter. ****Sorry about the crappy poetry, seems that not writing for a long period of time (years) really shows. Anyways** I just kind of wrote this because I didn't want to make this chapter crazy short so ya sorry if it's not the best. Reviews would be much appreciated. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks again for reading.


	14. Chapter 14

**Ok, so you guys might hate me in this chapter, but trust me there is good reason for this happening! I PROMISE! So please, please take it easy when it comes to reviews. Like I said I'm basing some parts on my own life, and this is something that probably happens to all young love, if not, in every romance movie. Again I'm sorry, but I promise there will be a good explanation for this later on in the story.  
**

* * *

_Chapter 14_

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The night was still pretty fresh, street lights filled the streets and the quiet sound of night filled the air. Her blue eyes, blonde hair, slender body could not evade his mind. What was it about her that made her so amazing.

He reached his front door and looked up at the sky before stepping in, only to think of her, Helga. Making his way up to his room he opened the door and began to get out of his clothes from the day and placed his laptop onto his desk, then laid straight on his bed with his hand behind his head for support.

The only thing that went through his mind, 'we have this whole summer together, maybe this will be it.' He shut his eye for a second to recount how in just a short period of time she had changed his life.

'Buzz, buzz,' was the only he heard from his nightstand and so he grabbed his phone and saw it was from Helga. He opened the message and couldn't help but smile as it read, 'Hey, talk to Big Bob today, you ok with getting tickets to leave June 28th?'

He couldn't help but reply back to her, 'whenever you feel like catching the flight I'm ok with it, just let me know what flight it is and I'll buy the ticket.'

'Ok sounds good, Bob can't wait to get me out of the house this summer. By the way, thanks for wanting to come with me this summer.'

'No problem, but really I just invited myself, plus having your company around is probably the best thing that I could ask for this summer.' He knew how uncomfortable it made Helga knowing that someone actually enjoys having her around, but he couldn't help it, he really did mean it.

'Ya, ya, quit with the charming, I'm not one of your spineless cheerleaders.'

He couldn't help but laugh at her remark and simply texted back to her, 'woah now, we shouldn't be putting my cheering squad down now.' ending the text with a winking face.

'Ya because they totally help you buffoons win games.' ending her text as well with a winking face.

'Well hey, not like I see you in the crowd cheering me on now.'

'That's not about to happen now. Anyways I'm gonna hit the sack, someone's going to knocking at my door at 8am and I gotta get my beauty sleep. Night.'

'Goodnight Helga.' which ended their texting conversation.

The way that she didn't take any of the crap he did or said it made him just want to know more about her. The way she would get into an angry fit only to hide what she was really feeling, and when she realizes she was wrong and she'll bite her lip but still apologize. Just everything she seemed to do drew him further in and he couldn't help himself.

As Gabe laid down on his bed thinking about the upcoming trip this summer with Helga, he tried desperately thinking of ways to maybe make a move on her without her taking offence to it, or shooting him down as if what he's doing is all a joke.

What was Gabe thinking though, he just broke up with Sandy because of Helga. Sandy was an amazing girl herself, but she just wasn't Helga, and he couldn't help but think about Helga whenever he was with Sandy.

Of course it would have wore away at the girl, knowing the guy she's with can't stop thinking about another girl. There's only so much a girl can put up with, and he was surprised she put up with it that long.

The non-stop conversations about Helga, bring her up whenever he could, it was going to happen sooner or later though. He couldn't exactly blame Sandy's friends for not liking Helga all that much. He did have a lot to with it he had to admit.

As he thought over and over again about Helga, and what went wrong with him and Sandy, Gabe couldn't help but feel himself fall asleep to all the thoughts that were processing through his brain. It wasn't until the next morning when he woke up at 7am.

When he looked at his clock he realized he had to leave in a bit to meet Helga at her place and he didn't want to keep her waiting. He grabbed his towel and his clothes and quickly went to shower. After getting ready he quickly grabbed his stuff and a bagel on his way out the door and heading to the Pataki house.

A few knocks later Helga had finally opened the door, to only be greeted once again by the goofy smile Gabe seemed to give him every time he saw her.

"Criminy, it's not even 8 yet." As Helga started to put her shows on all the while trying to hurry out the house.

"Sorry about that, ya I just didn't want to be later that's all."

"Well are we going to start walking or what?" as she signalled for the sidewalk.

"Ya, sorry coming, just a little distracted this morning."

"I can't tell." She said bluntly with a sarcastic tone to her voice as per usual when he'd say something stupid.

"Nothing fools you does it?" he said back to Helga only to match her sarcasm.

"Ya, ya, ya I get it, you're trying to be a smartass too." She once again said bluntly.

"Rough night I take it, you're grumpier than usual."

"What's it to you?!" Helga said sharply to him, not wanting to talk about it.

"I was just saying anyways how 'bout we change topics, I can tell it's something you would rather not talk about, and I get it."

Pure silence just came from Helga. She was still pretty upset from last night.

"Well hey we still have time before class, lets stop at the park, so you can cool off you know." Gabe suggested to Helga.

Helga simply nodded at his idea, and followed too.

As they got to the park they sat on the swings lightly swinging back and forth on the swings. It wasn't until Gabe decided to get up and push her a bit on her swing.

Helga wasn't expecting him to do that, but she did have to admit the attention was nice. She finally after a few pushes let loose and started to enjoy herself. The moment Gabe noticed he got in front of the swing and signalled for her to jump, only for her to refuse. He continued to encourage her, but only getting more refusal, until finally she slowed herself down on the swing and got up from it.

He was nervous at that point that maybe he pissed her off, but when she came up to him and nudged him on the arm a bit, he knew she wasn't and was relieved to say the least.

As they started walking Gabe slowed down. At first Helga didn't notice then looked over and saw he was falling behind. "What's wrong? Why'd you slow down?" Helga said genuinely confused.

He fumbled a little then shook his head a bit and stood up straight. "Can I tell you something?" he said calmly.

Helga just standing there shrugged her shoulders and simply replied, "Shoot, go for it."

He didn't know where to start first so he shut his eyes for a second then took a breath in, "I like you." He didn't know what to expect from Helga after that, but he was hoping for something, just anything but a response of pure disgust.

Helga took it in for a moment. She was in pure shock, but then looked at him in a nervous wreck but trying to keep his composure. So she smiled at him and shrugged her shoulders and said back to him, "I like you too, no biggie."

He couldn't believe what he just heard, he fumbled with his next approach, he just didn't see this coming, and coming so calmly from Helga. "Well then um, I was wondering if you might want to you know, start dating?"

At this point Gabe was a nervous wreck. Helga had no idea what she was doing but she had to admit he's such a nice guy, so she couldn't help but respond to Gabe, with a simple, "sure, why not."

Gabe was ecstatic, he couldn't believe she agreed, he quickly stepped towards Helga and grabbed her hand and smiled. He placed one hand on her cheek and Helga could already feel her cheeks flushing a bright red. He leaned in and with his hand tilted her head up just the slightest by her chin. As their lips met Helga felt herself go at ease as she shut her eyes.

And in that moment an image of Arnold flashed through her mind, and she opened her eyes, and there was Gabe, their lips still locked and his eyes still shut. A feeling of guilt came upon her and she pulled away from Gabe.

He looked at Helga, he felt something, and he knew it. Helga looked at him, still feeling the guilt she smiled at him, and grabbed his hand. "We should head to school now, before we're late."


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey guys, having all this time off work gives me a lot of time to actually write. I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, I feel I've been lacking a bit in the creative process of all this, and I'm molding the story into something so typical, but I'm trying to keep it as fresh as I can right now. Anyways I'm going to try to twist things up a little, and we'll see where it takes me. **

**Thanks again for reading guys. Reviews are much appreciated.**

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_Chapter 15  
_

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"You ready to go man?" the voice from behind his bedroom door said.

"Ya, I'll be right out Gerald." The voice said from the other side of the door.

"Well you might wanna hurry my man, we're going to miss the bus if you take any longer."

"Just grabbing my stuff Gerald, just give me one second."

News had spread about Helga bringing a guy with her to Hillwood. Who probably is her boyfriend, but who was Arnold kidding, even if Helga and him were to get together she'll just have to end up leaving anyways.

He grabbed his things from his desk and headed out of his room to be met with his best friend. Gerald couldn't help but look at Arnold and say to him, "mmm, mmm, mmm, still bugging you huh?"

"Ya, but I should have figured she would meet someone out there, plus she hated my guts for so long, why would she ever want to spend time with me Gerald."

"Hey man, you don't know for sure if that's her boyfriend." He said to his best friend to try to comfort him a little.

"Are you kidding me Gerald? She's coming to Hillwood with him, why would she bring a random guy with her here to Hillwood?" He said looking at Gerald.

"Well you never know man. She's Helga G. Pataki, you never know what you're going to get from that girl."

"Ya Gerald, but she's a nice person deep down, if you get to know her. And well she's not that bad of a person."

"Trust me my man, I hear that all the time from Phoebe, I just haven't witnessed it, that's all. Plus it's hard to picture Helga being nice."

"Well she is, I've witnessed it more times than I can count Gerald."

"Whatever you say man."

As the two boys reached the school, Gerald couldn't help but want to ease all the word going around about Helga, so he looked over at Arnold and said, "well man I'm going to go find Phoebe, she's probably wondering where I am, I'll see you at lunch?"

"Sure Gerald, see you at lunch."

As Gerald began reaching Phoebe's locker he saw none other than Rhonda and Lila talking to Phoebe, which have become a regular occurrence since word about Helga coming back got out. "Hey babe, you wanna start heading to class."

Phoebe looked at Gerald and smiled then back at Rhonda and Lila and smiled at them too. "Sure, I'll talk to you two later perhaps? I'm sorry we have to cut our conversation short, but Gerald is right, we should start heading to class now."

Rhonda unimpressed with the intrusion of Gerald during their conversation looked at Gerald and gave him an unpleasant smile, then back to Phoebe and smiled at her. "Well I'll talk to you later then Phoebe taw taw." She then looked at Lila and said to her, "well lets get going Lila, we don't want the two lovebirds to be late now."

Lila smiled at Phoebe and Gerald and tilted her head a bit and waved while saying to the two, "it was ever so nice to see you this morning, I'll talk to you later bye Phoebe, bye Gerald."

As Gerald and Phoebe began to head in the direction of their first period class, he couldn't help but look at Phoebe and say to her, "hey babe?"

"Yes Gerald?" Phoebe replied back in a still cheery mood.

"Can you cool it down with the whole Helga thing? It's really getting to Arnold you know."

"Oh? What do you mean? Why would it be bothering Arnold?" she asked honestly curious about the request.

"Well since she left, my man's been pretty down about the whole thing. And now that she's coming back this summer he was pretty excited about it, but then a mention of some guy coming with her, it just kinda brought his spirits back down."

Phoebe was shocked to hear that Arnold was upset with Helga being gone, but she couldn't break Helga's trust and tell Gerald about Helga's feeling, so she had no choice but to oblige to his request.

"Thanks babe, I'll see you later then?" Gerald looked at phoebe and smiled.

"Of course. I'll see you at lunch then." As she waved to him good bye and headed into her class.

* * *

It had been a couple of weeks since the two had begun dating, and to say the least Gabe was amazing, but things just weren't clicking on Helga's side of things. He was there for her no matter what, if she wanted to talk, wanted to just get out of the house, or just felt like having some company around, he was there, but something was missing for Helga, she just couldn't admit it.

The public display of affection Gabe had for Helga, he wanted the world to know how he felt, how he has found 'the perfect girl.' Helga on the other hand felt the complete oposite; he deserved someone so much better, someone who felt the same way he feels about Helga.

She just couldn't give him her all, she was always holding herself back. She honestly tried, she liked Gabe, but she just didn't feel the way the does about Arnold. She honestly didn't want to give up on something that could potentially become amazing, but each time getting closer to Gabe, that golden haired, green eyed boy would come to her mind and she felt like she was cheating him in a way.

What her and Gabe have built since the day they met, Helga couldn't help but feel drawn to him, but not in the same way she was drawn to Arnold. She knew Gabe felt it, but not in that same way Helga felt it. She cherished the bond they've built, but she didn't want to hurt Gabe in any way at all. But stringing him along hurt more than to just try to end things on a good note before things got too serious.

The weeks went on and it was getting closer to the date of their departure, what was Helga going to do about the situation she had gotten herself into. She knew she had to do something, and soon, before the trip. A knock from her front door came echoing into her room. She couldn't help but quickly give all her attention to the knock and quickly got up to answer it.

When she opened the door, there was Gabe. He looked at her and smiled and asked if she was able to come out for a bit. She agreed and asked him to wait a minute while she grabs her stuff before they head out. He of course agreed and smiled at her and waited patiently as she got her shoes on and grabbed a sweater just in case it got a bit too cool out.

They began walking, without a direct destination. Not a word came from Gabe's mouth as they walked, and it made Helga a bit curious as to why he didn't say anything. As they continued to walk they reached the park, the park they'd always spend most of their time.

Gabe took a seat on one of the swings and Helga did the same. He looked over at Helga and smiled one more time then looked back down at his feet. She was so curious about what was going on in his head, but she didn't want to be the one to break the silence, so she just sat there and looked up at the sky.

It was finally when Gabe broke the silence, "so the trip's in a week."

Helga feeling relieved with the silence broken looked over at him and smiled, "ya, it's going to be fun, seeing Phoebe and everyone again."

"Ya." A simply reply came from Gabe.

Helga knew there was something he wasn't saying, so she changed to the topic to something more serious, "are you ok Gabe?" as she looked at him with genuine concern.

"Ya … just the trip is coming up soon, and well, things don't feel right between us for some reason." You could hear the tone of sadness and a bit of desperation in his voice.

Helga felt hurt hearing and seeing him this way, "what do you mean?"

He didn't dare to look at Helga this time and just went on to say to her, "well it just seems that you're thinking of something else … maybe someone else …"

Her face went pale, she knew what he was talking about, and couldn't get herself to say anything in response.

"Am I right though? We haven't known each other for a crazy long time or anything, but I think I've gotten to know you well enough to know when something's going on with you."

Helga felt a little defeated at that moment, he was able to see through her, see what she may be hiding deep down. The only response she was able to come up with was, "well it's just seeing everyone again is really starting to get to me I guess."

He knew it was something more than just that and decided he needed to know if what he was thinking was right or not. "Does it have anything to do with that Arnold guy?"

Helga's face once again went pale, she wasn't able to move an inch, she thought 'how could he know?'

He knew without a response that it did have something to do with him, and continued on, "I don't want to be in the way Helga, honestly. I'm not mad or anything, I know he was there before I was, so who am I to compete when he has already won."

She still couldn't get herself to say anything to Gabe. She could only feel tears building up in her eyes at that moment.

"I get it, seeing him again is going to bring a lot of feelings back, and I don't blame you at all. If I were in the same position I'd probably be the same way right now."

Helga finally got the courage to say something to him. "I really didn't want to hurt you Gabe, you're such a great guy. You're an amazing friend, and I do like you, a lot. It's just there's so many things unresolved with myself."

He looked at Helga and smiled, "well I'll be waiting here when you're ready Helga. We can take a break if you really want to, I don't want to be in the way, or give you reason to hate me."

Helga looked at him with a tear streaming down her face, "I couldn't hate you Gabe not even if I tried. You're an amazing guy. No other person would ever do this for another person. I wish I was able to feel the way you feel about me, but I've tried and things just keep holding me back from it." All while saying this she reached over and grabbed his hand.

He looked down at their hands, then back up at Helga and smiled. You could tell he was hurt, but he smiled anyways and said to Helga, "well like I said we're great friends right? I just hope you're happy, honestly Helga. And I really don't want things to change between us."

She looked back at him and smiled but didn't say anything but nodded in agreement.

He then proceeded to get up and looked at her. "We should head back now, before your parents freak out about you being out so late."

She smiled at him and knew he wanted to change the subject and replied back to him, "oh ya, because they're so worried about me being out so late." And rolled her eyes and nudged him on the arm all while smiling at him.

As the two started walking back they hadn't said much till Gabe said out of the blue, "by the way, I cancelled my ticket for this summer. I didn't want to drag you down while I was there, and I know you want to catch up with your friends so I figured I didn't want to intrude on that."

Helga looked at him with a blank look and said, "You didn't have to do that you know, I'm sure my friends would get along with you."

"I'd prefer it that way anyways, we can hang out when you get back anyways right?" he smiled at Helga.

She just kept walking and then finally while looking up at the sky said, "thanks, really, you're an amazing guy Gabe."

He looked at her one more time before reaching her house and smiled at her, "well see you around soon Pataki."

Helga looked back at him as she walked to her front door, "see you around Gabe." And shut her door behind her.

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**I hope you enjoyed this chapter guys, let me know what you think! I love reading feedback, it helps me get writing again!  
**

**Thanks again for taking the time to read this you guys are awesome!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys, I know I've been updating this like crazy, but hey I got so much time off work I was able to finally sit down and write. I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, and I love all the reviews you guys are writing by the way.**

**Reviews are much appreciated, and once again thanks for reading!**

* * *

_Chapter 16_

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"So she's going to be here in a couple of day man." The teen to the right of Arnold said as they walked down the street.

"Ya, but with that guy …" as Arnold kept walking with his head down, he just couldn't get it out of his head about the fact that Helga was coming, with another guy.

"You know Arnold my man, I'm your best friend. I'm not about to let you be all hung up over this whole thing. Ya Helga's coming here, and ya she's bringing a guy with her, but what do you expect Arnold, she'll just be leaving again by the time summer ends." He was looking at his best friends as serious as he could be at that moment.

"Ya, but there's just something about her Gerald. She's different from the rest of the girls we know, she's smart, she's funny, and she definitely doesn't take anyone's crap." He said finally looking up at his best friend.

"Ya, but again Arnold, she's just end up leaving again. Why can't you just let the girl be happy my man. If she's so amazing as you say, then you'd accept the fact that she may have found someone she actually cares about." His best friend was trying to plead with Arnold.

"You're right Gerald. She will be leaving this summer … and ya I should be happy if she has found someone she cares about, but I guess I just want something from her … anything. Just maybe even a friendship with her. She just left Hillwood without saying a word to any of us, and we all grew up together. How could she think none of us don't care about her?"

"You know Arnold, none of us have really stayed close like we used to. Ya we talk once in awhile, but face it, we all kind of drifted apart and the only person who kind of stayed by Helga's side was Phoebe." He looked Arnold straight in the eye.

"I just don't get it still though, I just wish she at least told me she was leaving …"

"Well Arnold my man, this summer is your chance to ask her, and to be perfectly honest from what Phoebe has been telling me, Helga has changed quite a bit since leaving Hillwood." As he said this he patted Arnold on the back as a sign of reassurance.

"Thanks Gerald, you're probably right. I'm sure she will have a good reason for leaving without telling us." He looked over at his best friend and smiled.

* * *

The countless and endless wait for until Helga was going to be stepping foot back in Hillwood was close approaching. As she was walking, she approached by Monica, John, and Quin. "We heard what happened Helga, you ok?" a gentle voice came from Monica's voice.

"You mean me and Gabe?" Helga looked at Monica.

"Ya, well word got around and people saw you guys together in the halls you know, then word got around that you guys broke up."

"Well we both agreed to take a break from each other, I'm going to Hillwood this summer and well, how would things work with me away all summer right."

"That's actually the next thing I was going to ask you about. I thought you and Gabe were going to your hometown together?"

"We were-" Helga was cut off by a voice behind her.

"Well you guys really weren't the best together to begin with, so no surprise there." A smug look came from the person standing behind Helga.

"Excuse me?" Helga couldn't help but feel angry looking straight at Quin.

"I'm just saying you guys are just so different. It was obvious it wasn't going to work out." She could care less about Helga's reaction.

"Well just for your information, we know we're better off friends, it's not like we stopped talking to each other all together. So whatever reason you feel it's your business about my personal life, you better just lay off, because it has absolutely none of your concern." You could see in Helga's face the frustration and anger.

"For your INFORMATION little miss I'll do anything to fit in." With that comment it just further pissed Helga off. "The only reason why people 'LIKE' you, is because you look for whatever traits about that person you like and work off that. That's the only reason why people 'like' you, but I can see right through it."

Helga was furious at that moment, but she knew she shouldn't completely lose her temple and just pound Quin at that moment. That wasn't the Helga she was anymore, but instead looked Quin straight in the eye and replied, "quite honestly, that's how everyone interacts with other people. Just because you think that Gabe was too good for me, or something. Here's some news for you, he came onto me, and for the rest of it, it's really none of your business. Your opinion about me and how I should live my life has no relevance."

Before Quin was able to say anything everyone in the group was just looking at her at the moment, and Helga just simply ignored her and looked at the rest of the and said, "well guys, I'll see you later, I've had enough bullshit to listen to today to be quite frank. See you guys later." She said as she walked down the hall and headed out the school.

As Helga walked home she couldn't help but still felt angry with the events that just happened, as she was approaching her house she just kept walking instead. She came to a stop and realized she was in front of Gabe's house, she didn't know whether she should knock on the door or just turn back. Without realization she was walking to his front door and knocking.

Gabe came and opened the door surprised to see Helga standing at his door, but smiled and said to her, "good to see you! What brings you here today?"

"Honestly I'm not sure, I didn't even realize I was at your house till I knocked on the door."

"Well don't be a stranger, come on in."

Helga normally didn't hang out with Gabe at his place, but didn't refuse the offer and stepped in. "Sorry about showing up unannounced and all. Just had a rough day that's all."

He looked at her and smiled and signalled for her to follow him down hall to a set of stairs leading to the basement. "Don't worry about it, we're still friends. What was so rough about today anyways? School being done? Or is it the whole leaving in a couple of days?"

They reached his basement and to her amazement his room was more like a semi basement apartment suite with a kitchen, washroom, living area and separate bedroom. She walked over to the couch Gabe was sitting on and took a seat and began to talk. "No it doesn't have anything to do with me leaving in a couple of days or anything. It's just you know Quin?"

He looked at her a little confused trying to remember who Quin was again, "Ya I think I do, slightly odd, follows you and your friends around a lot?"

Helga just thinking about her glared a bit at the wall, "ya her. Anyways, she thought she had the write to try to dictate my life today. Saying you and me would have never worked to begin with, and that you were obviously too good for me. Like who does she think she is, she has no say in my life, and why would it even matter to her in the first place."

Gabe was a little surprised by what Helga was saying but looked at her and began to speak. "Well, those are chicks for you right. I can't say why she thinks she has a say in your life, but whatever, don't worry about it. It's not like you have to see her all summer or anything right."

She looked at Gabe and knew he was right. "Well I guess you're right, but it still pisses me off you know. She's just so full of herself and I just don't understand it that's all I guess."

"Well hey, I honestly didn't want things to be over with us, but you know what things happen and I'd rather stay friends with you rather than not talk to you at all."

Helga couldn't help but smile at him and started to say, "I really wish things could have worked with us, but you're right, we're so much better as friends. Whom else could I go to, to complain about stupid things like this anyways?"

He looked at Helga again and smiled, he wanted to kiss her so bad at that moment, but things were over between them so he opted with just putting his arm around her instead.

Helga looked at him and smiled again and put her head against his chest then began to talk again. "Anyways I should head home and start packing, I haven't even started and I'm leaving in a couple of days. Thanks for the talk though, you always know what to say. I'll see you before I leave?"

"How 'bout I take you to the airport?"

Helga looked at him a little surprised, "Seriously?" were the only words that were able to come from her mouth.

"Ya, I'll drive you to the airport, that way you won't have to cab, I doubt your parents will be able to take you, plus I really don't mind."

"Well I guess if you want. See you on Sunday then I guess." She proceeded to getting up and heading up the stairs, all while Gabe followed behind.

They reached the front door and Gabe looked at her and said. "See you on Sunday Helga." And she proceeding to heading out the door and down the street to her house.


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey guys! So I finally have time to post this chapter. Things are getting pretty interesting! All the feedback is awesome! And yes I changed the rating, since it's coming to the juicy parts of the story where well things may or may not happen this summer for the gang. I'll try my best to keep updating as often as I can! I have a lot of things happening this month so I'll post whenever I manage to find time!**

**I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Feedback is awesome! And thanks again for reading of course!**

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_Chapter 17_

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The light of day was just beginning to break from the night sky in Hillwood. School was done and trying to break the habit of waking up in the morning was something that needed a few weeks to break. He headed down the stairs to the kitchen to be greeted by his grandparents.

"Morning Kimbo, you ready for some breakfast bright and early I see here." His grandma said as she started flipping more pancakes.

"Morning grandma. Ya, haven't quite gotten used to not getting up so early since school just finished and all." He replied back all while taking a seat by his grandpa at the table.

"So Shortman, what plans do you have for ya today?" as his grandpa had his paper open in front of him.

"Well grandpa, honestly I'm not too sure … Helga's coming back today." He said while sighing and looking down at the empty spot on the table in front of him.

"Helga … Helga, you say … hmmm, doesn't ring a bell Shortman." He said while taking a finger to his chin and tapping it, then scratching the top of head.

"You know grandpa … my childhood bully … we basically grew up together, we were friends for god knows how long."

"Hmmm Shortman, sorry still not ringing a bell." He said as he continued to scratch the top of his head.

"Oh! Eleanor's coming back to say?!" grandma said as she looked over from the stove with a smile on her face.

"Oh you mean the one with the one eyebrow!" grandpa Phil blurted out after grandma.

"Yes grandpa, yes grandma, and it's Helga." Arnold said with a bit of frustration for having to correct them every time they mention Helga.

"I wasn't aware your little friend left Shortman. Where'd she go?" Grandpa Phil looked at Arnold a little puzzled.

"She moved away about a year ago grandpa …"

"Sorry to hear Shortman. At least she's coming back right?" he said as he looked at Arnold.

"Ya, but she's only visiting grandpa, and we haven't spoken since … well … I'm not sure, but it's been quite awhile." He said as he looked down at the table again where grandma set a plate of pancakes for him.

"Don't worry Shortman, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you, to see everyone for that matter."

Arnold sighed and looked at his grandpa and replied back, "I guess you right grandpa, sorry I don't have much of an appetite this morning. I'm gonna call Gerald to see if he wants to get together or something today."

"Alright Shortman. And remember, don't worry about it, I'm sure everything will work out just fine." His grandpa said as Arnold headed up the stairs.

As he opened the door to his room and entered in he headed straight for the nightstand in search of his phone. He turned it one and scrolled through the list of contacts and stopping at Gerald and proceeded to call him. A few rings later Gerald answered the phone, and to his surprise he was already awake.

"Hey Gerald." Was all that came out of Arnold's mouth after hearing Gerald answer the phone.

"Hey man, what's up?" it seemed as if Gerald was getting ready to go somewhere already.

"Nothing really, I was just wondering what you were up to today? Thought maybe we can hang out today."

"Ah man, I'd love to, but I told Phoebe I'd go to the airport with her and Olga today see pick up Helga man. Sorry."

"Oh sorry Gerald, I thought you weren't going that's all, no big deal though. Maybe we can all get together later maybe … if Helga's up to it of course."

"Well man, why don't you just come with us, I'm sure Phoebe and Olga won't mind, plus I'd love to have another guy there to talk to."

"I thought Helga was bringing a guy with her here though."

"Oh well she was, but he opted out at the last minute or something. That's what Phoebe said at least, so it's just Helga coming now."

"Oh, well sure, as long as they don't mind though. I don't want to intrude or anything."

"Ya man, don't worry about it, they'll be fine with it. It's Phoebe, she almost never gets mad at anyone … aside from me."

"Alright sure, I'll meet you in ten then?"

"Don't worry about it man, we'll swing by and pick you up, you're on the way anyways. Just be ready that's all."

"Ok, cool I'll see you guys in a bit then."

After hanging up the phone, he couldn't help but hurry to get ready before they get there to pick him up. He quickly jumped in the shower and threw his clothes on and tried to fix his hair the best he could in such little time.

He finished getting ready faster than expected before they had actually arrived, so he sat on his stoop waiting for them to pull up. A yellow Volkswagen Beetle pulled up to the curb and honked at Arnold, his head quickly bolted up and saw Gerald signalling for him to come over and hurry up.

As he proceeded into the vehicle he couldn't help but feel like he should apologize for tagging along to pick up Helga. Phoebe simply assured him it was no big deal and no need to apologize, despite the fact she knew deep down Arnold was one of the last people she'd want to see that day.

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As a car pulled up to the front, all that was heard was a horn. "Criminy, wake up the neighbourhood why don't you …" she said to herself as she dragged her luggage down the stairs.

She proceeded to opening the door, and found Gabe standing there and a giant grin on his face. "I thought you needed a wakeup call." He winked at her as he said that.

"Criminy I'm pretty sure you woke our entire neighbourhood up." She said to him as she lugged her luggage out the door.

"Here, I'll grab that, I'll just meet you in the car." He said, as he reached over and grabbed her luggage.

"Well bucko, who's going to lock the door if you meet me in the car." She spat as she pushed to the side to lock the door.

"Someone is definitely not a morning person today are they." He said still smiling at her.

"I'll meet you in the car, I'm just going to lock up." She was still a little grumpy since she spent all night packing.

"Alright then, take your time."

After locking up the house she got into the car to meet with Gabe. She buckled up and crossed her arms in disapproval and glared out the window.

Gabe looked over at her and smiled and said, "how 'bout we grab some coffee before you head to the airport, I'm sure you need it, with that attitude."

She quickly glared at him and proceeded to reply, "ya, whatever, lets just make it quick, I'm not about to sit around for another flight if I miss this one."

As they pulled up to a local Starbucks, Gabe got out of the car and Helga followed. While walking to the door Gabe nudged Helga on the arm and said, "so, you gonna miss me while you're away?" as he winked at her.

"Oh ya, tons." She said in a sarcastic tone as she rolled her eyes at him.

They reached the counter and Helga began ordering her drink, then Gabe came behind her and proceeded to pay for it. Helga looked at him and said, "you know I can buy my own drinks right."

He couldn't help but chuckle a little and smile at her, and said, "I know that, but I'd prefer to pay anyways, plus I won't be able to see you almost all summer so, I really don't mind paying."

Helga said nothing and proceeded to wait by the counter where they call out the drinks. The cashier looked at Gabe and smiled at him, "you guys are really cute together." Then hand him his change.

All he said back to her was, "thanks, she's a pretty amazing person despite her grumpiness this morning." Then walked over to where Helga was standing and already drinking her drink like there was no tomorrow.

When they got back into the car, they started driving up to the airport. Gabe was trying to find a spot to park, since he wanted to wait around with Helga as long as he could before she would have to head in to her gate.

Helga looked around and spotted a spot close to the walk way and quickly said to Gabe, "right there! Park there!" and proceeded to point at the spot.

He couldn't help but laugh at Helga and proceeded to park in the spot to please her. Then said to her, "you really can't walk that far can you today" and then winked at her.

She glared at him, "shut up! I just don't want to walk that far, that's all."

She checked in her luggage and got her boarding pass and the 2 just sat around chatting for a bit.

Gabe looked over and saw a photo booth, then smiled at Helga and asked her if she'd want to maybe take some photos in there. She agreed since there wasn't much to do anyways and it would be enough time to kill before she would have to head over to her gate.

They started taking the pictures a couple being goofy and then the last one was Helga laughing, and Gabe staring at her with a half lidded gaze with a slight smirk.

While they finished the picture and the pictures were just developing her gate was called, the pictures came out just in time and the two ran over to her gate. She was about to head over to the gate, but before she knew it gabe quickly grabbed her hand and smiled at her and said, "I'll miss you, you know Helga, have a safe trip. I'll see you when you get back k, don't be a stranger, text or call whenever."

She smiled at him and embraced him with a giant hug with a slight tear in her eye. "I'll miss you too, you goof. And don't worry. I'll text when I can. See you in a couple of months."

He smiled at her again and she was just about to head to the gate, before she headed in she heard Gabe one more time, "take these! That way you won't forget about me while you're out there." And handed her the photos from the photo booth.

She headed down her gate and looked back to see Gabe still standing there, waiting till she was out of site. She couldn't help but smile and kept walking with the photos in hand toward her plane.


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter.  
**

**The moment you've been waiting for, a face-to-face interaction between the two. It's probably not going to pan out the way you wanted it, but I'm sticking true to the whole premise of my story title. Enjoy!  
**

**Feedback is awesome! And of course thanks for reading!  
**

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_Chapter 18  
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Finally pulling up into the terminal, Helga looked out the window and sighed, "Welcome back Helga G. Pataki …" as she stared out the window looking into the city skyline. As she struggled getting her carryon out from the top compartment where she was seated, she finally managed to get it out, all while mumbling to herself.

The walk down walk down through the endless hallways she was beginning to get frustrated with which way to go, "criminy, this place isn't that big! Sheesh, I should be at the baggage pick-up by now." She continued walking losing track of the original crowd she had gotten off the plane with, till finally she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. "Criminy, I'm lost in this dang place Phoebe."

Phoebe smiled and replied back to her, "Helga, I'm quite sure we can see you through the automatic doors, to your right."

Helga had a blank look on her face, and then slowly turned to her side, realizing she was right. Then looking straight down and replying back to Phoebe, "thanks Phoebs." Quickly ended the call after that.

As she began walking towards Phoebe and Olga, just beyond the two she swore she could see the back of the head of a blonde football headed kid in front of her. She shrugged it off and ignored it and began walking towards the two excited females in front of her, then slowly the head turned around and Helga stopped dead in her tracks.

The group continued to walk towards Helga, her still standing in pure shock and eye wide open, she just couldn't get herself to move from where she was standing. Quickly Olga embraced Helga with a giant hug, "baby sister! It's so great to see you! You're going to have a great time I promise! I have so much to tell you! Your little friends wanted to come greet you as well, and well you know me baby sister, how can I say no to your adorable little friends!"

Helga still couldn't manage to find any words to say and kept her blank shocked stare on her face, basically lifeless at that point. Phoebe approached Helga and embraced her in a hug as well, "oh Helga! I've missed you! I can't wait for this summer!"

Phoebe noticing the look on Helga's face soon realized the reason for it, forgetting Arnold was there. She looked at Helga, and slowly whispers to her, "I'm sorry Helga, Arnold came, Gerald insisted, and he has been wanting to see you for months now."

Still with a blank look on her face no reply came to Helga, she was still in pure shock to see him, considering she wasn't expecting it until the beach house. As she stood there motionless Arnold came up to Helga, "Hi Helga! It's great to see you again! I hope your flight was alright." He said as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

It took her a second to come back to reality then proceeded to shake her head just to try to take in what was going on around her. "Oh … hey Arnold, ya good to see you too …" she didn't know what else to say to him, she was just completely caught off guard.

"So Pataki, how was the flight?" Gerald said as he stood beside Arnold.

"Oh ya, right Geraldo, it was alright, long if you ask me, four stinking hours on a plane, and barely any leg room. Thank god I'm off that thing!" she said as she looked at him and laughed a bit.

She took to walking towards the conveyor belt to grab her luggage. When she spotted it she looked at Gerald, "so you going to just stand there Geraldo, or are you going to be a gentlemen as Phoebe claims you to be and grab my luggage or what?"

Arnold quickly heading by Helga's side, "oh I can grab it! It's no worry Helga!"

Helga still feeling a little awkward having Arnold there, look at him, "um … thanks Arnold …" she said as she looked over at Phoebe who was smiling at her.

Arnold grabbed the luggage, struggling to pull it off the conveyor belt, Gerald came over, "need a hand man? I can grab it."

Arnold looked at Gerald, "it's alright Gerald I got it."

Gerald looked at him, "alright man, whatever you say."

As the five walked down the where Olga had parked the car Gerald grabbed the luggage from Arnold, "I got it man, don't worry, I'll meet you in the car."

While Gerald struggled to put the luggage in the car he could help but say to Helga, "what did you pack Pataki, bricks?! This thing is like 200 hundred pounds!" he was exaggerating with the weight of course.

Helga couldn't help but scoff at the teen as he struggle, "what is it too heavy for you now Geraldo? I thought you were big into the sports nowadays."

He looked at Helga, "ya, but I wasn't expecting to carry bricks today!"

"Well you offered to carry it Geraldo, can't turn back now." She said as she smirked at Gerald.

Finally all five of them were comfortably packed into the car, Olga looked through her rear view mirror at the 3 teens in the back, "you guys are more than welcome to come over, I'm sure Helga would love it!"

Helga looked at Olga and glared at her, despite the fact that she doesn't know about Helga's long obsession over Arnold that consumed the majority of her childhood.

Phoebe was the only one to speak up first, "that's awfully kind of you Olga, as long as Helga doesn't mind if we do."

Olga looked over at Helga, who was still glaring, but out the window this time. "Well baby sis, do you mind if your friends come over?"

Helga half listening to Olga, "ya, ya, ya, whatever." She said as she waved her hand at Olga as if shooing her away.

She smiled and looked at the rear view mirror again, "well Helga seems to not mind, so if you guys don't have anything planned, you can come over."

"That would be great Olga! We'll help Helga unpack and get comfortable." Phoebe said looking back at Olga through the mirror.

When they pulled up to Olga's place Gerald went to grab Helga's luggage once again, and the 4 of them walked up the stoop to the front door. Gerald followed struggling to drag Helga`s luggage up the steps.

"Can we speed it up Geraldo, you're slowing us all down here." Helga said sarcastically to the teen, only to annoy him.

Gerald only looked at Helga and glared a bit. Phoebe came up to Gerald to kiss him on the cheek and thank him. "Thanks Gerald for helping carry Helga's things. It's very sweet of you."

Helga couldn't help but make a remark about Phoebe kissing Gerald on the cheek. "Woo Phoebs, would have never taken you as the PDA type." She said as she winked at Phoebe, only to have her blush.

As they all entered the house Helga couldn't help but feel impressed with Olga's decorating, "not too bad Olga." She said to Olga as she took a looked around.

"Thanks baby sis! I'll show you guys to your room, I hope you like it, I know how you love pink, so I made sure the covers were pink baby sis!"

As Olga led them up the stairs to Helga's room she insisted to make themselves comfortable. "Well here it is, I'll be downstairs if you need me baby sister, we can catch up later, I'm sure you have a lot to talk about with your friends." She said as she smiled and walked down the halls to the stairs.

Helga didn't know what to do, since Arnold and Gerald were both there, "So … um … do you guys want to maybe head out somewhere, I really don't need to unpack right now anyways, I can always do that later tonight since I'm not used to the whole time difference yet anyways."

Phoebe smiled at Helga and agreed that they should all just go out somewhere.

While the teens left the house, Gerald couldn't help but pull Arnold back a little and ask him, "so man, you gonna make a move or what? I didn't ask you to come just for the sake of coming man. Here's your chance, she doesn't seem to 'hate' you. So what are you waiting for?"

Arnold rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Gerald, "well, I don't want to be so forward Gerald. We haven't seen each other for months, and well, she seems to be acting weird to me."

"Well Arnold my man, right now is your best chance to talk to her. I can distract Phoebe, and maybe let the two of you talk."

Arnold looked at Gerald a little hesitant, but before he could say anything Gerald had gone over to Phoebe, which left Helga hanging back a bit from the two. He knew that was his opportunity to do something, say something to Helga, but what.

He approached Helga and managed to only say to her, "So excited about the upcoming plans for summer?" He had no idea what to talk about with Helga at all, and managed to only think of that to say to her.

She looked at Arnold blankly, "ya, I guess, Phoebe went over a few things that she had planned for this summer with me on the phone, but to be honest I didn't pay too much attention. What about you Arnold?"

He looked at Helga and smiled, and couldn't believe how different she looked from the last time he had seen her and proceeded to talk, "well not too much, probably just help out my grandparents with the boarding house and hang out with Gerald and the guys."

There was an awkward silence between the two and Gerald looked behind and looked at Arnold, signalling for him to make a move. Arnold just rolled his eyes at the gesture and looked at Helga, "So, how's the new city and all? Meet any interesting people out there?"

Helga looked at him, "ya, made a few friends here and there, not too many though."

He looked at Helga again and asked her, "I thought you were bringing a friend with you here? What happened?"

She looked at Arnold wide eyed surprised he had asked and even knew about her bringing someone with her, "well ya, they just couldn't make it out this summer, something came up … but no big deal though, they'd probably be bored out of their mind if they were to have come anyways." She didn't want to mention the fact that she was going to bring a guy with her to Hillwood, in case it would upset Arnold or put ideas in his head.

He smiled at Helga, "well that's good to here," he said, without realizing it he felt stupid and started thinking to himself, 'why would I say that's good, it's not good, she probably wanted her friend to come.'

She looked at Arnold and could tell he was getting nervous, "don't worry about it football head, they really couldn't make it out anyways, I'm not disappointed by it or anything."

He looked at Helga a little surprised she was able to tell he felt a little uncomfortable with how he had said what he did, "thanks Helga, I really didn't mean it in that way, just good to hear you're not upset about it, that's all."

They arrived at the pizza parlour and order a large pepperoni, and 4 yahoos for all of them. Arnold didn't really get much conversation out of Helga, since Phoebe and her were catching up mostly, so he resorted to just talking with Gerald.

Gerald looking at him a little disappointed at the fact that Arnold didn't make a move, but knew he couldn't say anything while both Phoebe and Helga were sitting there.

He looked at Gerald giving him a pleading look trying to hint that he'll do it soon, he just didn't know when.


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey guys, sorry for the delay but here the newest chapter. Been crazy busy, but I hope you enjoy it!**

**Thanks for all the reviews and of course thanks for reading!**

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_Chapter 19_

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"So man, are you going to make your move or what?" Gerald looked over at Arnold who was lying on his bed looking through his skylight.

"I am Gerald, I just don't know when that's all …" he said still looking up at his skylight.

"Arnold, you've had all week to make a move, it's not like Helga's going to be here forever you know. You need to make your move soon, before it's too late."

"I know Gerald, it just seems, she seems so distant, like uninterested … that's all." Arnold said as you could hear a bit of desperation in his voice as if hoping things could change.

"Well Arnold, you know Helga's not the easiest person to read. Just make a move man, what's the worst that could happen, she says no, it's not like you'll have to see her constantly after that, she's going to head back home by the end of the summer anyways."

"That's the thing Gerald, I don't want her to say no, but I just want to make sure she's interested first."

"Like I said, you don't have all the time in the world to wait my man. Just make your move soon, before it's too late." Gerald said as he took a look at his watch to see it said 10 past 11. "Well my man, I'm going to head out now, before my pop's flips out on me for heading home late again. See you tomorrow man, and remember think about what I said, you don't have all the time in the world."

Arnold got up to let Gerald out, and did their signature handshake. "I will Gerald, don't worry. I'll see you tomorrow for sure. Night Gerald."

After letting Gerald out, he headed back to his room and onto his bed thinking about what Gerald had said to him about not taking too long about waiting. While lying on his bed staring out his skylight, he started thinking about when he should actually make his move on Helga. While thinking about it, he felt his phone vibrate, he thought first it must be Gerald, seeing something weird on his way home, but to his surprise it was Lila.

He started thinking to himself, 'what would Lila be doing messaging me this later? We haven't spoken all that much for weeks now.' He ignored his thought and just checked the message to see what she was messaging him about.

'Hi Arnold, sorry for the late text, but I was curious as to whether you were going to the beach house on the weekend with everyone this weekend?'

It was a little curious why she would be wondering such a thing, but replied anyways to her, 'well ya, I'm probably heading down with Gerald, Phoebe and Helga. Why do you ask?'

'Oh, well we haven't talked in awhile so, I thought while we're down there, we can maybe hang out with each other. I really do miss us spending time together, plus with the whole break up with Matt I'd prefer a bit of a distraction.'

He was surprised to read that Lila and Matt had broken up; he really did feel sympathetic for Lila. He knew she must be feeling down about the whole ordeal and replied back to her, 'ya sure, that would be nice. I think Gerald, Phoebe, Helga and I are staying for a week at the lake house, but we can hang out during the weekend while you're there.'

'That would be ever so nice, well I'll see you this weekend then Arnold! Goodnight xox.'

Again with the 'xox,' Arnold just couldn't understand why she put that at the end of her messages, but just assumed maybe she does it with everyone.

He set his phone onto his nightstand and started looking up at the skylight again thinking about Helga, and when the perfect time to say something to her. While thinking about it he thought, 'well we have a whole week, just Gerald, Phoebe, Helga and I … that should be the perfect time to say something to her.' While thinking about how he'd do it and exactly when, he couldn't help but give into his eyes getting heavier and heavier, till finally they shut completely.

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"You've been acting awfully strange around Arnold Helga," she said while looking over at Helga as she pumped her air mattress. "I don't mean in a bad way, but I mean just strange …'

Helga after finishing pumping up her mattress looked at Phoebe and saw her look of pure concern on her face. "Sorry Phoebe, just seeing him and all I don't want this summer to get all weird or anything, considering that I'll be leaving again after this summer … I just don't want to grow any crazy attachments or anything …" she said to Phoebe as she fluffed her pillow a bit.

Phoebe looked at Helga and gave her a sympathetic smile. "Well it's not just you acting strange Helga, it's been Arnold too. I mean not weird since you got back, but since you left, he's been nothing but inquiring about you since you left Hillwod, and well, if he should reciprocate the same feelings you have had for him before you left well, why not give him the opportunity." She said to Helga who had completely frozen with her back facing Phoebe.

Helga had nothing but a blank look on her face, she wasn't expecting to hear that Arnold had been asking about her since she left, she was almost certain he had forgotten about her. She quickly shook her head and looked at Phoebe still holding her pillow, "you never told me he was asking about me since I left Phoebs …" she managed to say still in a state of shock.

"Well I did promise you Helga I wouldn't talk about Arnold, and I did just that. I thought maybe you felt indifferent about him since you left, but the circumstances seems I may have been wrong. All I'm saying Helga is maybe give it a chance, you never know. Anyways I think we should head to bed, we have a long drive to the beach tomorrow, and we need to be up early."

As helga said her goodnights to Phoebe and Phoebe began to doze off, she couldn't get herself to sleep. She kept thinking about what Phoebe had said about Arnold may be interested in her.

As her thoughts wouldn't leave her she started to really consider what Phoebe had said to her about giving Arnold a chance maybe, even if it's just a chance for them to be just friends. Her mind started to settle a bit and she was finally dozing off, the next week was going to eventful enough she might as well get as much shut eye now, rather than later.

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**Sorry for the lameness of this chapter and how short it is, but I felt it was necessary. Anyways, I'll try to get up the next chapter asap. Thanks for reading.  
**


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